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Copyright, 1855, 
By henry WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 

Copyright, 1883, 
By ERNEST W. LONGFELLOW. 

Copyright, 1890, 
By HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. 



All rights reserved. 






X 



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€]^e ^ong of patoatl^a 

INTRODUCTORY NOTE 

Evangeline^ published in 1847, was fol- 
lowed by The Golden Legend in 1851, and 
that by Hiawatha in 1855. The general 
purpose to make use of Indian material ap- 
pears to have been in the poet's mind for some 
time, but the conception as finally wrought 
was formed in the summer of 1854. He 
writes in his diary under date of June 22, " I 
have at length hit upon a plan for a poem on 
the American Indians, which seems to me the 
right one and the only. It is to weave together 
their beautiful traditions into a whole. I have 
hit upon a measure, too, which I think the 



IV 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA, 

right and only one for such a theme." A few 
days before, he had been reading with great 
deHght the Finnish epic Kalevala, and this 
poem suggested the measure and may well 
have reminded him also of the Indian legends, 
which have that likeness to the Finnish that 
sprmgs from a common intellectual stage of 
development and a general community of hab- 
its and occupation. 

An interest in the Indians had long been 
felt by Mr. Longfellow, and in his early plans 
for prose sketches tales about the Indians had 
a place. He had seen a few of the straggling 
remainder of the Algonquins in Maine, and 
had read Heckewelder while in college ; he 
had witnessed the spectacle of Black Hawk 
and his Sioux on Boston Common ; and a few 
years before he had made the acquaintance of 
the fine-tempered Kah-ge-ga-gah'bowh, the 
Ojibway chief, and had entertained him at 
his house, trusting not unlikely that he might 
derive from the Indian helpful suggestion. 

No sooner had his floating ideas of a work 
taken shape than he was eager to put his plans 
into execution. " I could not help this even- 
ing," he wrote June 25, " making a beginning 
of ManahozhOy or whatever the poem is to be 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE v 

called. His adventures will form the theme, 
at all events ; " and the next day ; " look over 
Schoolcraft's great book on the Indians ; three 
huge quartos, ill-digested, and without any 
index. Write a few Hues of the poem." His 
authority for the legends and the material 
generally of his poem was in the main School- 
craft's work, with probably the same author's 
more Hterary composition, Algic Researches^ 
and Heckewelder's narrative. He soon took 
Manabozho's other and more euphonic name, 
Hiawatha, into his service, and gave himself 
up to a thorough enjoyment of the task. 
" Worked at Hiawatha,'' he wrote on the 
31st of the month, " as I do more or less every 
day. It is purely in the realm of fancy. 
After tea, read to the boys the Indian story 
of The Red Swan.'' " Hiawatha," he wrote 
again in October, " occupies and dehghts me. 
Have I no misgivings about it? Yes, some- 
times. Then the theme seizes me and hurries 
me away, and they vanish." His misgivings 
took a concrete shape a few days later, when 
he read aloud to a friend some pages of his 
work. " He fears the poem wiU want human 
interest. So does F. So does the author. I 
must put a live, beating heart into it." 



VI THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Mr. Longfellow began writing Hiawatha, 
as we have seen, June 25, 1854. It was fin- 
ished March 29, 1855, and published Novem- 
ber 10. It is doubtful if the poet wrote any of 
his longer works with more abandonment, with 
more thorough enjoyment of his task, with a 
keener sense of the originality of his venture, 
and by consequence, with more perplexity 
when he thought of his readers. He tried the 
poem on his friends more freely than had been 
customary with him, and with varied results. 
His own mind, as he neared the test of publi- 
cation, wavered a Httle in its moods. " Proof 
sheets of Hiawatha,^^ he wrote in June, 1855. 
" I am growing idiotic about this song, and 
no longer know whether it is good or bad ; " 
and later still : " In great doubt about a canto 
of Hiawatha, — whether to retain or suppress 
it. It is odd how confused one's mind be- 
comes about such matters from long looking 
at the same subject." 

No sooner was the poem published than its 
popularity was assured, and it was subjected 
to the most searching tests. It was read by 
public readers to large audiences, and a few 
years later was set to music by Stoepel and 
given at the Boston Theatre with explanatory 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE vii 

readings by Matilda Heron. It was paro- 
died, — one of the surest signs of popularity, 
and it lived its parodies down, a surer sign still 
of intrinsic uncopyableness. It was criticised 
with heated words, and made the occasion for 
controversy. The elemental nature of the 
poetry led to vehement charges of plagiarism, 
and altogether the poet found himself in the 
midst of a violent war of words which recalled 
his experience with Hyjierion, He felt keenly 
the unreasonableness of the attack upon his 
honesty in the charge that he had borrowed 
metre and incidents both from the Kalevala, 
He made no secret of the suggestion of the 
metre, — he had used an acknowledged form, 
which was not exclusively Finnish ; and as for 
the legends, he openly confessed his indebted- 
ness to Schoolcraft in the notes to the poem. 
Referring to an article in a Washington paper, 
embodying these charges, he wrote to Mr. 
Sumner, December 3, 1855 : — 

This is truly one of the greatest literary outrages I 
ever heard of. But I think it is done mainly to show 
the learning of the writer. ... He will stand finally in 
the position of a man who makes public assertions which 
he cannot substantiate. You see what the charge of im- 
itation amounts to, by the extracts given. As to my 
having " taken many of the most striking incidents of 



Vlii THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

the Finnish Epic and transferred them to the American 
Indians " — it is absurd. I can give chapter and verse 
for these legends. Their chief value is that they are 
Indian legends. I know the Kalevala very well ; and 
that some of its legends resemble the Indian stories 
preserved by Schoolcraft is very true. But the idea 
of making me responsible for that is too ludicrous. 

Freiligrath wrote to him with reference to a 
discussion going on in the London Athenceura 
over the metre : " The very moment I looked 
into the book I exclaimed, — 

Launawatar, Frau die alte, 

and was laughing with you again over the 
pages of the Finnische Rune7i, as thirteen 
years ago on the Rhine. The characteristic 
feature, which shows that you have fetched 
the metre from the Finns, is the parallelism 
adopted so skilfully and so gracefully in Hia- 
watha'' In a note in his diary upon this 
letter, Mr. Longfellow added : " He does not 
seem to be aware that the parallelism, or 
repetition, is as much the characteristic of 
Indian as of Finnish song." 

Freiligrath translated Hiawatha, as he had 
other of Mr. Longfellow's poems, and in ac- 
knowledging the receipt of the translation, 
the poet wrote, January 29, 1857 : — 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE ix 

It is admirable, this translation of yours, as I knew 
it would be from the samples sent before. A thousand 
and a thousand thanks for it, and may Cotta pay you, 
as the broker paid Guzman de Alfarache, in money 
sahumada, y lavada con agua de dngeles. A passage 
was changed in the proofs which I sent to Bogue [the 
English publisher], and which he promised to hand to 
you. It is in the description of the sturgeon. This was 
changed to — 

As above him Hiawatha 

In his birch canoe came sailing, 

With his fishing line of cedar, — 

because the sturgeon, I found, was never guilty of the 
crime of frightening or eating his fellow fishes. . . . 
What you say, in the preface, of the close of the poem 
is very true. The contact of Saga and History is too 
sudden. But how could I remedy it unless I made the 
poem very much longer ? I felt the clash and concus- 
sion, but could not prevent nor escape it. 

Meanwhile the book had an unexampled 
sale, and the letters which the poet received 
from Emerson, Hawthorne, Parsons, Taylor, 
and others showed the judgment passed upon 
his work by those whose poetic perception 
was not blunted by habits of professional 
criticism nor taken captive by mere novelty. 
Several years after, a translation into Latin 
of a portion of the poem was made for use as 
a school-book, by Professor Francis W. New- 
man. Mr. Samuel Longfellow in his Life of 



X THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

the poet relates the following anecdote, illus- 
trative of the popularity of the poem : — 

A lady relates that, passing one day a jeweller's win- 
dow in New York, her attention was arrested by hearing 
from a crowd gathered before it a voice in unmistaka- 
ble brogue, saying, " Shure, and that 's for Hiawatha." 
The speaker was a ragged Irish laborer, unshaven and 
unshorn. She looked, and saw a silver boat with the 
figure of an Indian standing in the prow. " That must 
be," continued the speaker, "for a prisintation to the 
poet Longfellow ; thim two lines cut on the side of the 
boat is from his poethry." "That is fame," said the 
friend to whom she told the story. 

A word with regard to the illustrations. 
The full-page photogravures are designed by 
Mr. Remington to serve directly as accom- 
paniments to the poem, and he has followed 
the poet in using a certain freedom of treat- 
ment. For as Mr. Longfellow was more care- 
ful of the Indian type than exact in a con- 
sistent portraiture of one personage, and used 
his imagination to emphasize the central 
truths of his poetic interpretation of Indian 
life, rather than sought to follow scrupulously 
the lines of the archaeologist, so the artist, 
reading the poem, has made a series of 
pictures which have a basis of reality from 
his long and close study of the Indian in 



( 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE xi 

many situations, but sometimes are fanciful 
in their treatment. Mr. Longfellow made 
Indian pictures in verse and Mr. Remington 
has made Indian pictures in design, studying 
to make them correspond in spirit with the 
poet's conception, but not attempting to 
square the poet's description with the actual 
reahties of Indian life as he knows it by 
observation. 

The pen-and-ink drawings which decorate 
the margin of the text are, on the other hand, 
faithful representations of a large number of 
actual objects, in use among Indian tribes, or 
associated with their life. Most of these ob- 
jects are mentioned m the poem, but many 
are not, for the artist was desirous of making 
this collection of drawings a museum of In- 
dian curiosities, and in pm*suit of his object 
he has drawn both from his own large accu- 
mulation of material obtained in observations 
made during frequent intercourse with In- 
dian tribes, and from a diHgent study of ob- 
jects as stored in museums or pictured by 
trustworthy artists. A few of the objects 
which accompany the Notes are later in date 
than the time of the poem, and show the 
presence of the white man. The artist, in a 



Xll 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 



word, has studied to depict actual objects, 
indifferent to the possible criticism that in so 
doing he has departed from a strict regard 
to the time of the poem. His larger purpose 
has been to make these pen-and-ink sketches 
a storehouse of information regarding Indian 
life in its varied details. 





Contents anti Hi^t of 3(Hui^tratxon^ 

{Photogravure'' eccecnted by A. W. Elson (f Co., £oston] 

PAOE 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, from a portrait bj 

Samuel Lawrence in 1854 .... Frontispiece 
Introductory Note , . iii 

Deer, iii. ; Chippeway baby basket, xii. 

Contents and List of Illustrations . . . xiii 

Indian Dog, xiii. ; Indian flute, Cheyenne, xviii. 

Introduction 1 

Shuh-sluih-gah, blue heron,!; Fox, 2 ; Grouse, 2; "War- 
rior, 3 ; Headdress, Pawnee, 3 ; Deer, 4 ; Baby basket, 4 ; 
War club, 5 ; Blackfoot moccasin, green, 5. 

I. The Pe ace-Pipe 6 

All the tribes beheld the signal, 

Smv the distant smoke ascending. (Photogravure) . . 8 

Landscape, Rocky Mountains, G ; Calumet and fire-bag, 7 ; 
Fire stick, 7 ; Warrior, 8 ; Hatchet and fire-bag, Sioux, 9 ; 
Hand, 9 ; Shell hatchet, antique, 10 ; Fire-bag, 10 ; Head- 
dress, 11 ; Blackfoot war shirt, 11 ; Squaw, 12 ; Calumet, 
12. 

II. The Four Winds 13 

Like a ghost that goes at sunrise 

He beheld a maiden walking (Photogravure) . . .18 

River-bank, 13 ; Decorated buffalo skin, 14 ; Bear, 14 ; 
Bear, 15 ; Tomahawk, 16 ; Legging and moccasin, 17 ; War- 
rior, 17 ; Snow-shoe, 18 ; Blackfoot legging, 19 ; Bow and 
arrows, 20 ; Shield and lance, 21 ; Pipe, 22 ; Woman's 
belt, 23 ; War shirt, 23; Squaw, 24. 



XIV THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

III. Hiawatha's Childhood 25 

Then, upon one knee uprising, 

Hiawatha aimed an arrow. (Photogravure) . . . 32 

Indian camp, 25 ; Coup-stick stone shrunken on rawhide, 
25 ; Boy, ideal sketch, 2G ; Snake Indian papoose basket, 
buffalo hide, 27 ; Pottery, antique, 28 ; War club and ar- 
rows, 28; Squaw, 29; Papago jug, 29; Shield, 30; Bow 
and arrow, war and hunting, 31 ; Boy, 31 ; Spear and tom- 
ahawk, 32 ; Shield and spear, 33 ; Headdress, 33 ; Owl, 34. 

IV. Hiawatha and Mudjekeewis .... 35 

Glared like Ishkoodah, the comet. 

Like the starivith fiery tresses. (Photogravure). . . 38 

Caribou, 35; Bow, arrows, and tomahawk, 36; Mittens, 
37 ; Comanche legging, 37 ; Moccasin, antique, 38 ; Lance 
and shield, 38 ; Prehistoric Indian axe, walrus tusk, and flint 
arrow-head, 39 ; Axe, N. W. tribes, 40 ; Squaw, 41 ; Axe, 
42 ; Knife sheath, Blackf oot, 42 ; Flamingo, 43 ; Warrior, 
44 ; BJaapsack, 44 ; Axe and quiver, Huron or Mohawk, 
45; Wicker oUa, Apache, 45; Ute shirt, 46; "Shank" 
moccasin, Mohawk, 46. 

V. Hiawatha's Fasting 47 

And he saio a youth approaching. 

Dressed in garments green and yellow. (Photogravure) . 50 

In the forest, 47 ; Tomahawk, 48 ; Bead ornament, 48 ; 
Wild pigeon, 49 ; Indian boy, 50 ; Pottery, 51 ; Prehistoric 
hoe and knife, 52 ; Raven, 53 ; Maple leaf, 53 ; Elm leaf, 
54 ; Fire-bag, 54 ; Bead ornament, 55 ; Knife, sheath, and 
arrows, 55 ; Tomahawks, 56 ; Indian brave, 57 ; Antique 
mortar and pestle, 58. 

VI. Hiawatha's Friends 59 

Pitched it sheer into the river . . . 

Where it still is seen in Summer. (Photogravure) . . 64 

Landscape, 59 ; Squaw, 60 ; Woman's shirt, 61 ; Stone 
hatchet, antique, 61 ; Broken lance, 62 ; Fish-hook, stone 
axe, antique, 63 ; Spear, 64 ; A Blackfoot brave, 65 ; 
Hand, 65 ; Buffalo, from photograph taken from life, 66. 

VII. Hiawatha's Sailing 67 

Thus the birch canoe was builded . . . 

In the bosom of the forest. (Photogravure) . . . 70 

Birch canoe, 67 ; Elm leaf, 67 ; Scalping knife and sheath, 
68 ; Moqui club, 68 ; Birch-bark vessel, 69 ; Warrior, 69 ; 
Awl bag, Apache, 70 ; Common Apache buckskin shirt, 
green and yellow, 71 ; Iroquois bark vessel, 71 ; Necklace, 
72 ; Porcupine, 72. 

VIII. Hiawatha's Fishing 73 

Long sat waiting for an answer. (Photogravure) . . 76 

Landscape, 73 ; Spear, 74 ; Fish-hooks, common to north- 



CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS xv 

west coast, 75 ; Pack basket, 75 ; Squirrel, 76 ; Warrior, 
77 ; Legging, 78 ; Rawhide and stone club, 79 ; Eartliern 
cooking pot, 79 ; Knife in sheath, 80 ; Hammer, antique, 
80 ; Mexican Indian olla, Yaqui, 81 ; Canoe, 82. 

IX. Hiawatha and the Pearl-Feather . . 83 

Then began the greatest battle 

That the sun had ever looked on. (Photogravure) . . 90 

Wood scene, 83 ; War bonnet, Sioux, 84 ; Warrior, painted, 

85 ; War clubs, antique, 8G ; Modoc bow and arrow, 8G ; 

Headdress, medicine, 87 ; War club, 88 ; Buffalo bow, 89 ; 

Blackfoot war shirt, 89; Shield, quiver, and weapons, 

90 ; Shield, 91 ; Woodpecker, 92 ; Squaw, 92 ; Eagle, 93 ; 

Dressed scalp and earring, 93; Pipe and pouch, 94; 

Hatchet, trader's, 94. 

X. Hiawatha's Wooing ...... 95 

'^'^ I will follow you, my husband ! " (Photogravure) . . 102 

Falls of Minnehaha, after an old photograph, 95 ; Bow and 
quiver, Blackfoot, 96 ; Winter legging, buffalo, 97 ; Lipari, 
Apache, 98 ; Bone tool for arrow-making, 98 ; Bone tool 
for arrow-making, 99 ; Quiver, Yuma Apache, 99 ; Arrow, 
knife, and scalp, 100 ; Warrior, 101 ; Pottery, 101 ; Gourd 
for drinking, 102 ; Apache headdress, 102 ; Warrior, 103 ; 
Deer, 104 ; Headdress, 105 ; Camp kettle, 106. 

XI. Hiawatha's Wedding-Feast .... 107 

Through the shadows and the sunshine, 

Treading softly like a panther. (Photogravure) • . . 112 

Landscape, 107 ; Necklace, 107 ; Buffalo horn spoon, 108 ; 
Pipe head, 108 ; Wooden bowl, antique, 109 ; Shirt, 109 ; 
Pipe, 110; Snow-shoe, 111; Bracelet, Wolpi, 112; Fan of 
feathers, belonging to Crowfoot, head chief of Blackfeet, 
112; Brave, 113; Lacrosse stick, 1 14 ; Panther, 114; War- 
rior, 115 ; Rawhide cradle, Apache, 115 ; Headdress, Me- 
decius, 116. 

XII. The Son of the Evening Star . . .117 

" And her lovers, the rejected, . . . 
Handsome v^emvith paint and feathers. (Photogravure) . 120 

Lake view, 117 ; Pipe, tomahawk, and fire-bag, 118 ; War- 
rior, 119; Decoration on fur robe, 119; Ute earring, 
120 ; Arm and hand, 120 ; Squaw, 121 ; Landscape, 122 ; 
Shell spoon, 123 ; Earthen vessel, 123 ; Tomahawk, 124 ; 
Spoon, antique, 124; Bear-claw necklace, 125; Necklace, 
125; Quiver, Sioux, 126; Chippeway cradle, 127; Bow 
case, Sioux, 127; Spear, knife, and arrows, 128; Chey- 
enne moccasin, 128 ; Headdress, 129 ; Warrior, 130 ; Med- 
icine tom-tom, 131 ; Ute moccasin, 131. 

XIII. Blessing the Cornfields .... 132 

^Tioas the women who in Autumn 

Stripped the yelloiv husks of harvest. (Photogravure) . . 134 



xvi THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Tepee or lodge, 132 ; Deer, 133 ; Brave, 133 ; Moccasin, 
134 ; Wooden comb, 134 ; Pottery, 134 ; Hoe, 135 ; Stone 
mortar and pestle for grain, 135; Nootka Soimd knife, 
flint, 136 ; Mohawk warrior, 136 ; War club, 137 ; Stone 
head coup-stick, 138 ; Brave, 139 ; Indian corn, 139 ; Ear- 
ring, 140; Stone and bear-claw necklace, 140; Bracelet, 
140 ; Earring, 141 ; Stone " metat " for grinding com, 
141. 

XIV. Picture- Writing 142 

Such as these the shapes they painted 

On the birch-hark and the deer-skin. (Photogravure) . . 146 

Forest scene, 142 ; "Webajabe," used in dressing hides, 
142; Shirt, Blackfoot, 143; Brave, 143; Totem, 144; 
Hand, 144; Fire-bag, Blackfoot or Shoshone, 145; In- 
dian sign drawing, 146 ; Indian drawing of a turtle, 146 ; 
Indian drawing, 146 ; Indian drawing, 147 ; Dressing buf- 
falo robe, 147 ; Old-time knife, 148 ; " Weubaja" or hide 
dresser, common on buffalo raiige, 148 ; Indian sign draw- 
ing, Sioux, 149 ; A Plains Indian grave, tree burial, 149. 

XV. Hiawatha's Lamentation .... 160 

" / can blow you strong, my brother, 
I can Jieal you, Hiawatha ! '''' (Photogravure) . . . 156 

Pine-trees, 150 ; Warrior, 151 ; Legging and moccasin, 151 ; 
Wolf, 152 ; Snow-shoe, 153 ; Brave, Apache, 154 ; Black- 
foot medicine bonnet, 154 ; Gourd rattle, 155 ; Tom-tom, 
155 ; Medicine or ceremonial rattle, a gourd, Comanche, 
156 ; Medicine or totem bag, 157 ; Deer's antlers, 157 ; 
Trader's hatchet, 158 ; Brave, 158. 

XVI. Pau-Puk-Keewis 159 

All the old men and the young men, . . . 

Played till midnight, played till morning. (Photogravure) • 164 
Indian camp, 159 ; Medicine man's wand, 160 ; War club, 
161 : Mohawk sheU beads, 161 ; Scalping-knif e and sheath, 
162; Pottery, antique, 162; Warrior, 163; Fire-bag of 
Crowfoot, head chief of Blackf eet, 164 ; Pipes, 165 ; An- 
tique vase, Tennessee, 165; Warrior, 166; Pottery, 166; 
Ute fan, 167 ; Winter coat, 167 ; War club, 168 ; Pottery, 
168; Gull, 169. 

XVII. The Hunting of Pau-Puk-Keewis . . 170 

Thorough bush, and brake, and forest. 

Ran the cunning Pau-Puk-Keewis. (Photogravure) • .172 

Birch-trees, 170 ; Tomahawk and knife, 171 ; Moccasin, 
Pawnee, 171; Legging, 172; Brave, 173; Beaver, 173; 
Squaw legging, Cheyenne, 174 ; Moccasin, 174 ; Headdress, 
Sioux, 175; War club, Winnebago, 176; Stone hammer, 
antique, restored, 176 ; Wolf's head mask, 177 ; Shirt, 177 ; 
Blackfoot war club, 178; Wild goose, " Wawa," 179; 
Sliield, Apache, " medicine " or religious, 179 ; Kioway 
moccasin, 180 ; Warrior, 181 ; Headdress, 182 ; War club, 
182 ; Shield, Sioux, 183 ; War club, 184. 



CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS xvii 

XVIII. The Death of Kwaslnd .... 185 

Sideways fell into the river. 

Plunged beneath the sluggish ivater. (Photogravure) . . 188 

Moose head, 185 ; Blackfoot head, idealized, 186 ; Axe, an- 
tique, 187 ; Headdress, moccasin, and apron, 187 ; Knife 
in sheath, 188 ; A dressed scalp, 188 ; Brave, 189 ; Sioux 
tomahawk, 189 ; Fallen trees, 190. 

XIX. The Ghosts 191 

Sat down in the farthest corner. 

Crouching low among the shadows. (Photogravure) . . 194: 

In the spruce forest, 191 ; Apache moccasin, 192 ; Raw- 
hide, double ball, used in game like "hockey," 192 ; An 
old Apache woman, 193 ; Knife sheath, 194 ; Pottery, 195 ; 
Parfleche or buffalo meat bag, rawhide, 195 ; Deer's horn, 
196 ; Wampum, 196 ; Tree graves, 197 ; Wampum, 197 ; 
Old brave, 198 ; Pottery, 198 ; White Mountain Apache 
shirt, buckskin, 199. 

XX. The Famine 200 

Then he sat down, still and speechless, . . . 

At the feet of Laughing Water. (Photogravure). . . 204 

Plains Indian grave, 200 ; Coyote, 200 ; Squaw, 201 ; Pot- 
tery, 201 ; Quiver and bow, 202 ; Warrior, 203 ; Toma- 
hawk, 204 ; Legging and moccasin, 204 ; Bowstring guard 
for wrist, 205 ; Sioux squaw's mantle, white bead work, 
205; Comanche moccasin, 200; Indian chair or lounge, 
206 ; Wooden dish, very old form, 207. 

XXI. The White-Man's Foot . . . .208 

" Sit here by the dying embers. 
Let us pass the night together.^'' (Photogravure). . . 210 

Pipe head, 208 ; Paddle, 208 ; Omaha calumet, 209 ; Image, 
210; Headdress, horsehair, 210; Sword and club, 211; 
Shield, 211 ; Bow case and quiver, 212 ; Cheyenne moc- 
casin, 213 ; Papago olla, 213 ; Helmeted soldier, 214 ; Old 
blunderbuss, bow, and arrow, 214 ; Gun case, Blackfoot, 
buffalo hide and beads. 215 ; Colonial head, 216 ; Trader's 
head, 216. 

XXII. Hiawatha's Departure .... 248 

Came the Black-Eobe chief, . . . the Pale-face, 

With his guides and his companions. (Photogravure) . . 220 

River-view, 217 ; Pipe, arrow, and lance, 218 ; Pottery, 219 ; 
Shield, 219; Headdress, 220 ; Willow basket, 220 ; Priest's 
head, 221 ; Shirt, 221 ; Priest, 222 ; Birch-bark vessel, 223 ; 
Pottery, 223; Medicine spear, 224; Pottery, 224; Ideal 
head, 225 ; Medicme wand, 226 ; Wild ducks, 226. 

Vocabulary and Notes 227 

War club, 227 ; Ornament, antique, 227 ; Quijo, or carry- 
ing basket, Papago, 228 ; Hunter's cabin. Witch Bay, Cran- 



XVlll 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 



berry Lake, 229 ; Mask, ceremonial, Papago, wood and 
horsehair, 230 ; Riding- v/hip or quirt, 231 ; Packing bag, 
decorated for a horse, Blackfoot, 231 ; Whip, 232 ; Pack, 
232 ; Baby basket, 233 ; A Blackfoot squaw saddle, 233 ; 
Pottery, 233 ; Fiddle, Apache, 234 ; Pottery, 235 ; Trader's 
hatchet, Kioway, 23G ; Elk-horn riding-whip, 237 ; Tom- 
tom, 237 ; Buffalo skull, 238 ; Pottery, 238 ; Grooved stone 
axe, 239 ; Cheyenne elk-horn saddle, 239 ; Gourd drinking- 
cup, 240 ; Water jug, Zuni, uneven in shape, 240 ; Chey- 
enne baby basket, 241 ; Ideal head, 242 ; Calumet or peace- 
pipe, 242. 





€]^e ^ong of l^iaiwatl^a 



INTRODUCTION 



Should you ask me, whence these stories ? 
Whence these legends and traditions, 
With the odors of the forest, 
With the dew and damp of meadows, 
With the curUng smoke of wigwams. 
With the rushing of great rivers. 
With their frequent repetitions, 
And their wild reverberations, 
As of thunder in the mountains ? 
I should answer, I should tell you, 
'' From the forests and the prairies. 
From the great lakes of the Northland, 
From the land of the Ojibways, 



y' 





I THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

From the land of the Dacotahs, 

From the mountains, moors, and fen-lands 

Where the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, 

Feeds among the reeds and rushes. 

I repeat them as I heard them 

From the lips of Nawadaha, 

The musician, the sweet singer." 

Should you ask where Nawadaha 
Found these songs so wild and wayward, 
Found these legends and traditions, 
I should answer, I should tell you, 
" In the bird's-nests of the forest, 
In the lodges of the beaver. 
In the hoof -prints of the bison, 
In the eyry of the eagle ! 

" All the wild-fowl sang them to him, 
In the moorlands and the fen-lands. 
In the melancholy marshes ; 
Chetowaik, the plover, sang them, 
Mahng, the loon, the wild-goose, Wawa, 
The blue heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, 
And the grouse, the Mushkodasa ! " 

If still further you should ask me, 
Saying, " Who was Nawadaha ? 
Tell us of this Nawadaha," 
I should answer your inquiries 
Straightway in such words as follow. 



INTRODUCTION 



" In the Vale of Tawasentha, 
In the green and silent valley, 
By the pleasant water-courses, 
Dwelt the singer Nawadaha. 
Round about the Indian village 
Spread the meadows and the corn-fields, 
And beyond them stood the forest. 
Stood the groves of singing pine-trees. 
Green in Summer, white in Winter, 
Ever sighing, ever singing. 

" And the pleasant water-courses, 
You could trace them through the valley 
By the rushing in the Spring-time, 
By the alders in the Summer, 
By the white fog in the Autumn, 
By the black line in the Winter ; 
And beside them dwelt the singer. 
In the Yale of Tawasentha, 
In the green and silent valley. 

" There he sang of Hiawatha, 
Sang the Song of Hiawatha, 
Sang his wondrous birth and being, 
How he prayed and how he fasted, 
How he lived, and toiled, and suffered, 
That the tribes of men might prosper. 
That he might advance his people ! " 

Ye who love the haunts of Nature, 







4 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Love the sunshine of the meadow, 
Love the shadow of the forest. 
Love the wind among the branches, 
And the rain-shower and the snow-storm. 
And the rushing of great rivers 
\Jiy Through their paHsades of pine-trees, 
And the thunder in the mountains. 
Whose innumerable echoes 
Flap like eagles in their eyries ; — 
Listen to these wild traditions, 
To this Song of Hiawatha ! 

Ye who love a nation's legends. 
Love the ballads of a people. 
That like voices from afar off 
Call to us to pause and Hsten, 
Speak in tones so plain and childlike, 
Scarcely can the ear distinguish 
Whether they are sung or spoken ; — 
Listen to this Indian Legend, 
To this Song of Hiawatha ! 

Ye whose hearts are fresh and simple, 
Who have faith in God and Nature, 
Who believe, that in all ages 
Every human heart is human. 
That in even savage bosoms 
There are longings, yearnings, strivings 
For the good they comprehend not. 



\ 



INTRODUCTION 



That the feeble hands and helpless, 
Groping bHndly in the darkness, 
Touch God's right hand in that darkness 
And are lifted up and strengthened ; — 
Listen to this simple story, 
To this Song of Hiawatha ! 

Ye, who sometimes, in your rambles 
Through the green lanes of the country, 
Where the tangled barberry-bushes 
Hang their tufts of crimson berries 
Over stone walls gray with mosses, 
Pause by some neglected graveyard. 
For a while to muse, and ponder 
On a half -effaced inscription, 
Written with little skill of song-craft. 
Homely phrases, but each letter 
Full of hope and yet of heart-break. 
Full of all the tender pathos 
Of the Here and the Hereafter ; — 
Stay and read this rude inscription. 
Read this Song of Hiawatha ! 






On the Mountains of the Prairie, 
On the great Red Pipe-stone Quarry, 
Gitche Manito, the mighty, 
He the Master of Life, descending. 
On the red crags of the quarry 
Stood erect, and called the nations. 
Called the tribes of men together. 

From his footprints flowed a river, 
Leaped into the light of morning. 
O'er the precipice plunging downward 



ii 



THE PEACE-PIPE 



Gleamed like Ishkoodah, the comet. 
And the Spirit, stooping earthward, 
With his finger on the meadow 
Traced a winding pathway for it, 
Saying to it, " Run in this way ! " 

From the red stone of the quarry 
With his hand he broke a fragment, 
Moulded it into a pipe-head. 
Shaped and fashioned it with figures ; 
From the margin of the river 
Took a long reed for a pipe-stem. 
With its dark green leaves upon it ; 
Filled the pipe with bark of willow. 
With the bark of the red willow ; 
Breathed upon the neighboring forest, 
Made its great boughs chafe together. 
Till in flame they burst and kindled ; 
And erect upon the mountains, 
Gitche Manito, the mighty, 
Smoked the calumet, the Peace-Pipe, 
As a signal to the nations. 

And the smoke rose slowly, slowly. 
Through the tranquil air of morning. 
First a single line of darkness. 
Then a denser, bluer vapor. 
Then a snow-white cloud unfolding, 
Like the tree-tops of the forest. 






THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 




Ever rising, rising, rising, 
Till it touched the top of heaven, 
Till it broke against the heaven. 
And rolled outward all around it. 

From the Vale of Tawasentha, 
From the Valley of Wyoming, 
From the groves of Tuscaloosa, 
From the far-off Rocky Mountains, 
From the Northern lakes and rivers 
All the tribes beheld the signal. 
Saw the distant smoke ascending, 
The Pukwana of the Peace-Pipe. 

And the Prophets of the nations 
Said : " Behold it, the Pukwana ! 
By this signal from afar off. 
Bending like a wand of willow. 
Waving like a hand that beckons, 
Gitche Manito, the mighty. 
Calls the tribes of men together. 
Calls the warriors to his council ! " 

Down the rivers, o'er the prairies. 
Came the warriors of the nations. 
Came the Delawares and Mohawks, 
Came the Choctaws and Camanches, 
Came the Shoshonies and Blackfeet, 
Came the Pawnees and Omahas, 
Came the Mandans and Dacotahs, 



THE PEACE-PIPE 



Came the Hurons and Ojibways, 
All the warriors drawn together 
By the signal of the Peace-Pipe, 
To the Mountains of the Prairie, 
To the great Red Pipe-stone Quarry. 

And they stood there on the meadow, 
With their weapons and their war-gear. 
Painted like the leaves of Autumn, 
Painted like the sky of morning. 
Wildly glaring at each other ; 
In their faces stern defiance. 
In their hearts the feuds of ages. 
The hereditary hatred. 
The ancestral thirst of vengeance. 

Gitche Manito, the mighty, 
The creator of the nations. 
Looked upon them with compassion, 
With paternal love and pity ; 
Looked upon their wrath and wrangling 
But as quarrels among children. 
But as feuds and fights of children ! 

Over them he stretched his right hand, 
To subdue their stubborn natures. 
To allay their thirst and fever. 
By the shadow of his right hand ; 
Spake to them with voice majestic 
As the sound of far-off waters. 








THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Falling into deep abysses, 

Warning, chiding, spake in this wise : — 

" my children ! my poor children ! 
Listen to the words of wisdom, 
Listen to the words of warning. 
From the lips of the Great Spirit, 
From the Master of Life, who made you ! 

" I have given you lands to hunt in, 
I have given you streams to fish in, 
I have given you bear and bison, 
I have given you roe and reindeer, 
I have given you brant and beaver, 
Filled the marshes full of wild-fowl. 
Filled the rivers full of fishes ; 
Why then are you not contented ? 
Why then will you hunt each other ? 

" I am weary of your quarrels, 
Weary of your wars and bloodshed. 
Weary of your prayers for vengeance, 
Of your wranglings and dissensions ; 
All your strength is in your union. 
All your danger is in discord ; 
Therefore be at peace henceforward. 
And as brothers live together. 

" I will send a Prophet to you, 
A Deliverer of the nations, 
Who shall guide you and shall teach you. 






THE PEACE-PIPE 



II 



Who shall toil and suffer with you. 
If you listen to his counsels, 
You will multiply and prosper ; 
If his warnings pass unheeded, 
You will fade away and perish ! 

" Bathe now in the stream before you. 
Wash the war-paint from your faces, 
Wash the blood-stains from your fingers, 
Bury your war-clubs and your weapons, 
Break the red stone from this quarry. 
Mould and make it into Peace-Pipes, 
Take the reeds that grow beside you, 
Deck them with your brightest feathers. 
Smoke the calumet together, 
And as brothers live henceforward ! " 

Then upon the ground the warriors 
Threw their cloaks and shirts of deer-skin. 
Threw their weapons and their war-gear 
Leaped into the rushing river, 
Washed the war-paint from their faces. 
Clear above them flowed the water, 
Clear and limpid from the footprints 
Of the Master of Life descending ; 
Dark below them flowed the water. 
Soiled and stained with streaks of crimson. 
As if blood were mingled with it ! 

From the river came the warriors, 





12 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 




Clean and washed from all their war-paint ; 
On the banks their clubs they buried, 
Buried all their warlike weapons. 
Gitehe Manito, the mighty. 
The Great Spirit, the creator, 
Smiled upon his helj)less children ! 

And in silence all the warriors 
Broke the red stone of the quarry. 
Smoothed and formed it into Peace-Pipes, 
Broke the long reeds by the river. 
Decked them with their brightest feathers, 
And departed each one homeward. 
While the Master of Life, ascending, 
Through the opening of cloud-curtains. 
Through the doorways of the heaven, 
Vanished from before their faces. 
In the smoke that rolled around him, 
The Pukwana of the Peace-Pipe ! 





II 



€lje four i©inti^ 



" Honor be to Mudjekeewis ! " 
Cried the warriors, cried the old men, 
When he came in triimiph homeward 
With the sacred Belt of Wampum, 
From the regions of the North-Wind, 
From the kingdom of Wabasso, 
From the land of the White Rabbit. 

He had stolen the Belt of Wampum 
From the neck of Mishe-Mokwa, 



14 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 





From the Great Bear of the mountains, 
From the terror of the nations. 
As he lay asleep and cumbrous 
On the summit of the mountains, 
Like a rock with mosses on it. 
Spotted brown and gray with mosses. 

Silently he stole upon him 
Till the red nails of the monster 
Almost touched him, almost scared him. 
Till the hot breath of his nostrils 
Warmed the hands of Mudjekeewis, 
As he drew the Belt of Wampum 
Over the round ears, that heard not. 
Over the small eyes, that saw not. 
Over the long nose and nostrils. 
The black muffle of the nostrils, 
Out of which the heavy breathing 
Warmed the hands of Mudjekeewis. 
Then he swung aloft his war-club. 
Shouted loud and long his war-cry. 
Smote the mighty Mishe-Mokwa 
In the middle of the forehead. 
Right between the eyes he smote him. 

With the heavy blow bewildered. 
Rose the Great Bear of the mountains ; 
But his knees beneath him trembled. 
And he whimpered like a woman. 



THE FOUR WINDS 

As he reeled and staggered forward. 
As he sat upon his haunches ; 
And the mighty Mudjekeewis, 
Standing fearlessly before him. 
Taunted him in loud derision, 
Spake disdainfully in this wise : — 

" Hark you, Bear ! you are a coward. 
And no Brave, as you pretended ; 
Else you would not cry and whimper 
Like a miserable woman ! 
Bear ! you know our tribes are hostile, 
Long have been at war together ; 
Now you find that we are strongest. 
You go sneaking in the forest, 
You go hiding in the mountains ! 
Had you conquered me in battle 
Not a groan would I have uttered ; 
But you. Bear ! sit here and whimper. 
And disgrace your tribe by crying. 
Like a wretched Shaugodaya, 
Like a coAvardly old woman ! " 

Then again he raised his war-club, 
Smote again the Mishe-Mokwa 
In the middle of his forehead. 
Broke his skull, as ice is broken 
When one goes to fish in Winter. 
Thus was slain the Mishe-Mokwa, 



15 





l6 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

He the Great Bear of the mountains, 
He the terror of the nations. 

" Honor be to Mudjekeewis ! " 
With a shout exclaimed the people, 
" Honor be to Mudjekeewis ! 
Henceforth he shall be the West-Wind, 
And hereafter and forever 
Shall he hold supreme dominion 
Over all the winds of heaven. 
Call him no more Mudjekeewis, 
Call hhn Kabeyun, the West-Wind ! " 

Thus was Mudjekeewis chosen 
Father of the Winds of Heaven. 
For himself he kept the West- Wind, 
Gave the others to his children ; 
Unto Wabun gave the East- Wind, 
Gave the South to Shawondasee, 
And the North-Wind, wild and cruel, 
To the fierce Kabibonokka. 

Young and beautiful was Wabun ; 
He it was who brought the morning. 
He it was whose silver arrows 
Chased the dark o'er liill and valley ; 
He it was whose cheeks were painted 
With the brightest streaks of crimson. 
And whose voice awoke the village. 
Called the deer, and called the hunter. 



THE FOUR WINDS 



17 



Lonely in the sky was Wabun ; 
Though the birds sang gayly to him, 
Though the wild-flowers of the meadow 
Filled the air with odors for him ; 
Though the forests and the rivers 
Sang and shouted at his coming, 
Still his heart was sad within him, 
For he was alone in heaven. 

But one morning, gazing earthward, 
While the village still was sleeping. 
And the fog lay on the river. 
Like a ghost, that goes at sunrise, 
He beheld a maiden walking 
All alone upon a meadow. 
Gathering water-flags and rushes 
By a river in the meadow. 

Every morning, gazing earthward. 
Still the first thing he beheld there 
Was her blue eyes looking at him, 
Two blue lakes among the rushes. 
And he loved the lonely maiden. 
Who thus waited for his coming ; 
For they both were solitary. 
She on earth and he in heaven. 

And he wooed her with caresses, 
Wooed her with his smile of sunshine. 
With his flattering words he wooed her, 







1 8 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

With his sighing and his singing, 
Gentlest whispers in the branches. 
Softest music, sweetest odors, 
Till he drew her to his bosom. 
Folded in his robes of crimson. 
Till into a star he changed her, 
Trembling still upon his bosom ; 
And forever in the heavens 
They are seen together walking, 
Wabun and the Wabun-Annung, 
Wabun and the Star of Morning. 

But the fierce Kabibonokka 
Had his dwelHng among icebergs. 
In the everlasting snow-drifts, 
In the kingdom of Wabasso, 
In the land of the White Rabbit. 
He it was whose hand in Autumn 
Painted all the trees with scarlet, 
Stained the leaves with red and yellow ; 
He it was who sent the snow-flakes, 
Sifting, hissing through the forest, 
Froze the ponds, the lakes, the rivers, 
Drove the loon and sea-gull southward. 
Drove the cormorant and curlew 
To their nests of sedge and sea-tang 
In the realms of Shawondasee. 

Once the fierce Kabibonokka 



THE FOUR WINDS 



19 



Issued from his lodge of snow-drifts, 
From his home among the icebergs, 
And his hair, with snow besprinkled. 
Streamed behind him Hke a river. 
Like a black and wintry river. 
As he howled and hurried southward. 
Over frozen lakes and moorlands. 

There among the reeds and rushes 
Found he Shingebis, the diver. 
Trailing strings of fish behind him. 
O'er the frozen fens and moorlands. 
Lingering still among the moorlands, 
Though his tribe had long departed 
To the land of Shawondasee. 

Cried the fierce Kabibonokka, 
" Who is this that dares to brave me ? 
Dares to stay in my dominions. 
When the Wawa has departed. 
When the wild-goose has gone southward 
And the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, 
Long ago departed southward ? 
I will go into his wigwam, 
I will put his smouldering fire out ! " 

And at night Kabibonokka 
To the lodge came wild and wailing, 
Heaped the snow in drifts about it. 
Shouted down into the smoke-flue, 




»^>> 




20 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Shook the lodge-poles in his fury, 
Flapped the curtain of the doorway. 
Shingebis, the diver, feared not, 
Shingebis, the diver, cared not ; 
Four great logs had he for firewood, 
One for each moon of the winter. 
And for food the fishes served him. 
By his blazing fire he sat there, 
Warm and merry, eating, laughing, 
Singing, " Kabibonokka, 
You are but my fellow-mortal ! " 

Then Kabibonokka entered. 
And though Shingebis, the diver, 
Felt his presence by the coldness, 
Felt his icy breath upon him. 
Still he did not cease his singing. 
Still he did not leave his laughing. 
Only turned the log a little. 
Only made the fire burn brighter, 
Made the sparks fly up the smoke-flue. 

From Kabibonokka's forehead. 
From his snow-besprinkled tresses, 
Drops of sweat fell fast and heavy, 
Making dints upon the ashes, 
As along the eaves of lodges, 
As from drooping boughs of hemlock, 
Drips the melting snow in spring-time, 
Making hollows in the snow-drifts. 



THE FOUR WINDS 



21 



Till at last he rose defeated, 
Could not bear the heat and laughter, 
Could not bear the merry singing, 
But rushed headlong through the doorway, 
Stamped upon the crusted snow-drifts, 
Stamped upon the lakes and rivers, 
Made the snow upon them harder. 
Made the ice upon them thicker. 
Challenged Shingebis, the diver. 
To come forth and wrestle with him. 
To come forth and wrestle naked 
On the frozen fens and moorlands. 

Forth went Shingebis, the diver. 
Wrestled all night with the North-Wind, 
Wrestled naked on the moorlands 
With the fierce Kabibonokka, 
Till his panting breath grew fainter, 
Till his frozen grasp grew feebler. 
Till he reeled and staggered backward, 
And retreated, baffled, beaten. 
To the kingdom of Wabasso, 
To the land of the White Eabbit, 
Hearing still the gusty laughter. 
Hearing Shingebis, the diver. 
Singing, " Kabibonokka, 
You are but my fellow-mortal ! " 

Shawondasee, fat and lazy, 
Had his dwelHng far to southward. 




22 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

In the drowsy, dreamy sunshine. 
In the never-ending Summer. 
He it was who sent the wood-birds, 
Sent the robin, the Opechee, 
Sent the blue-bird, the Owaissa, 
Sent the Shawshaw, sent the swaUow, 
Sent the wild-goose, Wawa, northward, 
Sent the melons and tobacco. 
And the grapes in purple clusters. 
Uj From his pipe the smoke ascending 

FiUed the sky with haze and vapor, 
Filled the air with dreamy softness. 
Gave a twinkle to the water. 
Touched the rugged hills with smoothness, 
Brought the tender Indian Summer 
To the melancholy North-land, 
In the dreary Moon of Snow-shoes. 

Listless, careless Shawondasee ! 
In his life he had one shadow, 
In his heart one sorrow had he. 
Once, as he was gazing northward, 
Far away upon a prairie 
He beheld a maiden standing. 
Saw a tall and slender maiden 
AU alone upon a prairie ; 
Brightest green were all her garments, 
And her hair was like the sunshine. 



THE FOUR WINDS 



23 



Day by day he gazed upon her, 
Day by day he sighed with passion, 
Day by day his heart within him 
Grew more hot with love and longing 
For the maid with yellow tresses. 
But he was too fat and lazy 
To bestir himself and woo her. 
Yes, too indolent and easy 
To pursue her and persuade her ; 
So he only gazed upon her, 
Only sat and sighed with passion 
For the maiden of the prairie. 

Till one morning, looking northward, 
He beheld her yellow tresses 
Changed and covered o'er with whiteness, 
Covered as with whitest snow-flakes. 
" Ah ! my brother from the North-land, 
From the kingdom of Wabasso, 
From the land of the White Rabbit ! 
You have stolen the maiden from me. 
You have laid your hand upon her. 
You have wooed and won my maiden, 
With your stories of the North-land ! ' 

Thus the wretched Shawondasee 
Breathed into the air his sorrow ; 
And the South- Wind o'er the prairie 
Wandered warm with sighs of passion. 






24 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

With the sighs of Shawondasee, 
Till the air seemed full of snow-flakes, 
Full of thistle-down the prairie. 
And the maid with hair like sunshine 
Vanished from his sight forever ; 
Never more did Shawondaseee 
See the maid with yellow tresses ! 

Poor, deluded Shawondasee ! 
'T was no woman that you gazed at, 
'T was no maiden that you sighed for, 
'T was the prairie dandeUon 
That through all the dreamy Summer 
You had gazed at with such longing. 
You had sighed for with such passion. 
And had puffed away forever. 
Blown into the air with sighing. 
Ah ! deluded Shawondasee ! 

Thus the Four Winds were divided ; 
Thus the sons of Mudjekeewis 
Had their stations in the heavens. 
At the corners of the heavens ; 
For himself the West- Wind only 
Kept the mighty Mudjekeewis. 




Ill 



i^iatDatljaV €l)Htil)DOti 



Downward through the evening twilight, 

In the days that are forgotten, 

In the unremembered ages. 

From the full moon fell Nokomis, 

Fell the beautiful Nokomis, 

She a wife, but not a mother. 

She was sporting with her women, 
Swinging in a swing of grape-vines, 
When her rival the rejected. 
Full of jealousy and hatred. 
Cut the leafy swing asunder. 
Cut in twain the twisted grape-vines, 
And Nokomis fell affrighted 
Downward through the evening twiHght, 
On the Muskoday, the meadow. 





26 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

On the prairie full of blossoms. 

'' See ! a star falls ! " said the people ; 

^* From the sky a star is falling ! " 

There among the ferns and mosses, 
There among the prairie lilies. 
On the Muskoday, the meadow, 
In the moonhght and the starlight, 
Fair Nokomis bore a daughter. 
And she called her name Wenonah, 
As the first-born of her daughters. 
And the daughter of Nokomis 
Grew up Hke the prairie lilies. 
Grew a tall and slender maiden. 
With the beauty of the moonhght, 
With the beauty of the starlight. 

And Nokomis warned her often, 
Saying oft, and oft repeating, 

" Oh, beware of Mudjekeewis, 
Of the West- Wind, Mudjekeewis ; 
Listen not to what he tells you ; 
Lie not down upon the meadow. 
Stoop not down among the lilies, 
Lest the West- Wind come and harm you ! " 

But she heeded not the warning. 
Heeded not those words of wisdom. 
And the West-Wind came at evening. 
Walking lightly o'er the prairie. 



HIAWATHA'S CHILDHOOD 

Whispering to the leaves and blossoms, 
Bending low the flowers and grasses, 
Found the beautiful Wenonah, 
Lying there among the lilies, 
Wooed her with his words of sweetness, 
Wooed her with his soft caresses, 
Till she bore a son in sorrow. 
Bore a son of love and sorrow. 

Thus was born my Hiawatha, 
Thus was born the child of wonder ; 
But the daughter of Nokomis, 
Hiawatha's gentle mother. 
In her anguish died deserted 
By the West-Wind, false and faithless. 
By the heartless Mudjekeewis. 

For her daughter long and loudly 
Wailed and wept the sad Nokomis ; 
" Oh that I were dead ! " she murmured, 
" Oh that I were dead, as thou art ! 
No more work, and no more weeping, 
Wahonowin ! Wahonowin ! " 

By the shores of Gitche Gumee, 
By the shining Big-Sea- Water, 
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis, 
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis. 
Dark behind it rose the forest, 
Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees. 



2/ 






28 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Rose the firs with cones upon them ; 
Bright before it beat the water, 
Beat the clear and sunny water, 
Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water. 

There the wrinkled old Nokomis 
Nursed the little Hiawatha, 
Rocked him in his linden cradle. 
Bedded soft in moss and rushes. 
Safely bound with reindeer sinews ; 
Stilled his fretful wail by saying, 

" Hush ! the Naked Bear will hear thee ! " 
Lulled him into slumber, singing, 

" Ewa-yea ! my Httle owlet ! 
Who is this, that lights the wigwam ? 
With his great eyes lights the wigwam? 
Ewa-yea ! my little owlet ! " 

Many things Nokomis taught him 
Of the stars that shine in heaven ; 
Showed him Ishkoodah, the comet, 
Ishkoodah, with fiery tresses ; 
Showed the Death-Dance of the spirits. 
Warriors with their plumes and war-clubs, 
Flaring far away to northward 
In the frosty nights of Winter ; 
Showed the broad white road in heaven. 
Pathway of the ghosts, the shadows, 



HIAWATHA'S CHILDHOOD 



29 



Running straight across the heavens, 
Crowded with the ghosts, the shadows. 

At the door on summer evenings 
Sat the httle Hiawatha ; 
Heard the whispering of the pine-trees, 
Heard the lapping of the waters, 
Sounds of music, words of wonder ; 
" Minne-wawa ! " said the pine-trees, 
'' Mudway-aushka ! " said the water. 
Saw the fire-fly, Wah-wah-taysee, 
Flitting through the dusk of evening, 
With the twinkle of its candle 
Lighting up the brakes and bushes, 
And he sang the song of children. 
Sang the song Nokomis taught him : 
" Wah-wah-taysee, little fire-fly, 
Little, flitting, white-fire insect, 
Little, dancing, white-fire creature. 
Light me with your little candle, 
Ere upon my bed I lay me. 
Ere in sleep I close my eyelids ! " 

Saw the moon rise from the water 
Rippling, rounding from the water. 
Saw the flecks and shadows on it, 
Whispered, '' What is that, Nokomis ? " 
And the good Nokomis answered : 




^^i 




30 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 




" Once a warrior^ very angry, 
Seized his grandmother, and threw her 
Up into the sky at midnight ; 
Eight against the moon he threw her ; 
'T is her body that you see there." 
Saw the rainbow in the heaven, 
In the eastern sky, the rainbow. 
Whispered, " What is that, Nokomis ? " 
And the good Nokomis answered : 

" 'T is the heaven of flowers you see there ; 
All the wild-flowers of the forest. 
All the hlies of the prairie. 
When on earth they fade and perish, 
Blossom in that heaven above us." 

When he heard the owls at midnight. 
Hooting, laughing in the forest, 

'' What is that ? " he cried in terror, 

" What is that ? " he said, " Nokomis ? " 
And the good Nokomis answered : 

" That is but the owl and owlet. 
Talking in their native language. 
Talking, scolding at each other." 

Then the little Hiawatha 
Learned of every bird its language, 
Learned their names and all their secrets. 
How they built their nests in Summer, 
Where they hid themselves in Winter, 



HIAWATHA'S CHILDHOOD 



31 



Talked with them whene'er he met them, 
Called them " Hiawatha's Chickens." 

Of all beasts he learned the language, 
Learned their names and all their secrets. 
How the beavers built their lodges. 
Where the squirrels hid their acorns. 
How the reindeer ran so swiftly, 
Why the rabbit was so timid, 
Talked with them whene'er he met them, 
Called them " Hiawatha's Brothers." 

Then lagoo, the great boaster. 
He the marvellous story-teller. 
He the traveller and the talker, 
He the friend of old Nokomis, 
Made a bow for Hiawatha ; 
From a branch of ash he made it. 
From an oak-bough made the arrows, 
Tipped with flint, and winged with feathers. 
And the cord he made of deer-skin. 

Then he said to Hiawatha : 
Go, my son, into the forest. 
Where the red deer herd together, 
Kill for us a famous roebuck, 
Kill for us a deer with antlers ! " 

Forth into the forest straightway 
All alone walked Hiawatha 
Proudly, with his bow and arrows ; 






32 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

And the birds sang round him, o'er him, 

" Do not shoot us, Hiawatha ! " 
Sang the robin, the Opechee, 
Sang the bluebird, the Owaissa, 

" Do not shoot us, Hiawatha ! " 

Up the oak-tree, close beside him, 
Sprang the squirrel, Adjidaumo, 
In and out among the branches. 
Coughed and chattered from the oak-tree, 
Laughed, and said between his laughing, 

" Do not shoot me, Hiawatha ! " 

And the rabbit from his pathway 
Leaped aside, and at a distance 
Sat erect upon his haunches. 
Half in fear and half in frolic. 
Saying to the little hunter, 

" Do not shoot me, Hiawatha ! " 

But he heeded not, nor heard them, 
For his thoughts were with the red deer ; 
On their tracks his eyes were fastened. 
Leading downward to the river. 
To the ford across the river. 
And as one in slumber walked he. 

Hidden in the alder-bushes. 
There he waited till the deer came. 
Till he saw two antlers lifted. 
Saw two eyes look from the thicket. 



HIAWATHA'S CHILDHOOD 



33 



Saw two nostrils point to windward, 
And a deer came down the pathway, 
Flecked with leafy Kght and shadow. 
And his heart within him fluttered, 
Trembled Hke the leaves above him, 
Like the bhch-leaf palpitated. 
As the deer came down the pathway. 

Then, upon one knee uprising, 
Hiawatha aimed an arrow ; 
Scarce a tvdg moved with his motion. 
Scarce a leaf was stirred or rustled. 
But the wary roebuck started. 
Stamped with aU his hoofs together, 
Listened with one foot upHfted, 
Leaped as if to meet the arrow ; 
Ah ! the singing, fatal arrow. 
Like a wasp it buzzed and stung him 

Dead he lay there in the forest. 
By the ford across the river ; 
Beat his timid heart no longer, 
But the heart of Hiawatha 
Throbbed and shouted and exulted, 
As he bore the red deer homeward, 
And lagoo and Nokomis 
Hailed his coming with applauses. 

From the red deer's hide Nokomis 
Make a cloak for Hiawatha, 





34 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

From the red deer's flesh Nokomis 
Made a banquet to his honor. 
All the village came and feasted, 
All the guests praised Hiawatha, 
Called him Strong-Heart, Soan-ge-taha ! 
Called him Loon-Heart, Mahn-go-taysee ! 





IV 



]^iatDatf)a anti a^ubjeftectDijSf 



Out of childhood into manhood 
Now had grown my Hiawatha, 
Skilled in all the craft of hunters, 
Learned in all the lore of old men, 
In all youthful sports and pastimes, 
In all manly arts and labors. 
Swift of foot was Hiawatha ; 



36 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 




He could shoot an arrow from him, 
And run forward with such fleetness, 
That the arrow fell behind him ! 
Strong of arm was Hiawatha ; 
He could shoot ten arrows upward, 
Shoot them with such strength and swiftness^ 
That the tenth had left the bow-string 
Ere the first to earth had fallen ! 

He had mittens, Minjekahwun, 
Magic mittens made of deer-skin ; 
When upon his hands he wore them, 
He could smite the rocks asunder, 
He could grind them into powder. 
He had moccasins enchanted. 
Magic moccasins of deer-skin ; 
When he bound them round his ankles, 
When upon his feet he tied them. 
At each stride a mile he measured ! 

Much he questioned old Nokomis 
Of his father Mudjekeewis ; 
Learned from her the fatal secret 
Of the beauty of his mother, 
Of the falsehood of his father ; 
And his heart was hot within him. 
Like a living coal his heart was. 

Then he said to old Nokomis, 
I will go to Mudjekeewis, 



HIAWATHA AND MUDJEKEEWIS 



37 



See how fares it with my father. 
At the doorways of the West-Wind, 
At the portals of the Sunset ! " 

From his lodge went Hiawatha, 
Dressed for travel, armed for hunting ; 
Dressed in deer-skin shirt and leggings. 
Richly wrought with quills and wampum ; 
On his head his eagle-feathers, 
Round his waist his belt of wampum. 
In his hand his bow of ash-wood, 
Strung with sinews of the reindeer ; 
In his quiver oaken arrows. 
Tipped with jasper, winged with feathers ; 
With his mittens, Minjekahwun, 
With his moccasins enchanted. 

Warning said the old Nokomis, 
" Go not forth, Hiawatha ! 
To the kingdom of the West-Wind, 
To the realms of Mudjekeewis, 
Lest he harm you with his magic. 
Lest he kill you with his cunning ! " 

But the fearless Hiawatha 
Heeded not her woman's warning ; 
Forth he strode into the forest. 
At each stride a mile he measured ; 
Lurid seemed the sky above him. 
Lurid seemed the earth beneath him 







38 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Hot and close the air around him, 
Filled with smoke and fiery vapors, 
As of burning woods and prairies, 
For his heart was hot within him, 
Like a living coal his heart was. 

So he journeyed westward, westward, 
Left the fleetest deer behind him, 
Left the antelope and bison ; 
Crossed the rushing Esconaba, 
Crossed the mighty Mississippi, 
Passed the Mountains of the Prairie, 
Passed the land of Crows and Foxes, 
Passed the dwelHngs of the Blackf eet. 
Came unto the Rocky Mountains, 
To the kingdom of the West-Wind, 
Where upon the gusty summits 
Sat the ancient Mudjekeewis, 
Ruler of the winds of heaven. 

Filled with awe was Hiawatha 
At the aspect of his father. 
On the air about him wildly 
Tossed and streamed his cloudy tresses. 
Gleamed like drifting snow his tresses. 
Glared like Ishkoodah, the comet, 
Like the star with fiery tresses. 

Filled with joy was Mudjekeewis 
When he looked on Hiawatha, 



n 



HIAWATHA AND MUDJEKEEWIS 



39 



Saw his youth rise up before him 
In the face of Hiawatha, 
Saw the beauty of Wenonah 
From the gi'ave rise up before him. 

" Welcome ! " said he, " Hiawatha, 
To the kingdom of the West- Wind ! 
Long have I been waiting for you ! 
Youth is lovely, age is lonely, 
Youth is fiery, age is fi-osty ; 
You bring back the days departed. 
You bring back my youth of passion. 
And the beautiful Wenonah ! " 

Many days they talked together, 
Questioned, listened, waited, answered ; 
Much the mighty Mudjekeewis 
Boasted of his ancient prowess, 
Of his perilous adventures. 
His indomitable courage. 
His invulnerable body. 

Patiently sat Hiawatha, 
Listening to his father's boasting ; 
With a smile he sat and listened, 
Uttered neither threat nor menace. 
Neither word nor look betrayed him, 
But his heart was hot within him. 
Like a living coal his heart was. 

Then he said, " Mudjekeewis, 






40 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Is there nothing that can harm you? 
Nothing that you are afraid of ? " 
And the mighty Mudjekeewis, 
Grand and gracious in his boasting, 
Answered, saying, " There is nothing. 
Nothing but the black rock yonder, 
Nothing but the fatal Wawbeek ! " 

And he looked at Hiawatha 
With a wise look and benignant, 
With a countenance paternal. 
Looked with pride upon the beauty 
Of his tall and graceful figure. 
Saying, " my Hiawatha ! 
Is there anything can harm you ? 
Anything you are afraid of ? " 

But the wary Hiawatha 
Paused awhile, as if uncertain. 
Held his peace, as if resolving. 
And then answered, " There is nothing. 
Nothing but the bulrush yonder. 
Nothing but the great Apukwa ! " 

And as Mudjekeewis, rising. 
Stretched his hand to pluck the bulrush, 
Hiawatha cried in terror. 
Cried in well-dissembled terror, 
" Kago ! kago ! do not touch it ! " 
" Ah, kaween ! " said Mudjekeewis, 
" No indeed, I will not touch it ! " 



HIAWATHA AND MUDJEKEEWIS 

Then they talked of other matters ; 
First of Hiawatha's brothers, 
First of Wabun, of the East-Wind, 
Of the South- Wind, Shawondasee, 
Of the North, Kabibonokka ; 
Then of Hiawatha's mother. 
Of the beautiful Wenonah, 
Of her birth upon the meadow, 
Of her death, as old Nokomis 
Had remembered and related. 

And he cried, " Mudjekeewis, 
It was you who killed Wenonah, 
Took her young life and her beauty, 
Broke the Lily of the Prairie, 
Trampled it beneath your footsteps ; 
You confess it ! you confess it ! " 
And the mighty Mudjekeewis 
Tossed upon the wind his tresses, 
Bowed his hoary head in anguish, 
With a silent nod assented. 

Then up started Hiawatha, 
And with threatening look and gesture 
Laid his hand upon the black rock. 
On the fatal Wawbeek laid it. 
With his mittens, Minjekahwun, 
Rent the jutting crag asunder. 
Smote and crushed it into fragments. 
Hurled them madly at his father. 



41 






42 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

The remorseful Mudjekeewis, 
For his heart was hot within him, 
Like a Hving coal his heart was. 

But the ruler of the West-Wind 
Blew the fragments backward from him, 
With the breathing of his nostrils. 
With the tempest of his anger, 
Blew them back at his assailant ; 
Seized the bulrush, the Apukwa, 
Dragged it with its roots and fibres 
From the margin of the meadow, 
From its ooze the giant bulrush ; 
Long and loud laughed Hiawatha ! 

Then began the deadly conflict, 
Hand to hand among the mountains ; 
From his eyry screamed the eagle, 
The Keneu, the great war-eagle. 
Sat upon the crags around them. 
Wheeling flapped his wings above them. 

Like a tall tree in the tempest 
Bent and lashed the giant bulrush ; 
And in masses huge and heavy 
Crashing fell the fatal Wawbeek ; 
Till the earth shook with the tumult 
And confusion of the battle. 
And the air was full of shoutings, 
And the thunder of the mountains, 
Starting, answered, " Baim-wawa ! " 



HIAWATHA AND MUDJEKEEWIS 43 

Back retreated Mudjekeewis, 
Rushing westward o'er the mountains^ 
Stumbling westward down the mountains, 
Three whole days retreated fighting, 
Still pursued by Hiawatha 
To the doorways of the West-Wind, 
To the portals of the Sunset, 
To the earth's remotest border. 
Where into the empty spaces 
Sinks the sun, as a flamingo 
Drops into her nest at nightfall 
In the melancholy marshes. 

" Hold ! " at length cried Mudjekeewis 
' Hold, my son, my Hiawatha ! 
'T is impossible to kill me. 
For you cannot kill the immortal. 
I have put you to this trial, 
But to know and prove your courage ; 
Now receive the prize of valor ! 

" Go back to your home and people. 
Live among them, toil among them, 
Cleanse the earth from all that harms it. 
Clear the fishing-grounds and rivers. 
Slay all monsters and magicians, 
All the Wendigoes, the giants. 
All the serpents, the Kenabeeks, 
As I slew the Mishe-Mokwa, 
Slew the Great Bear of the mountains. 




44 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 





" And at last when Death draws near you. 
When the awful eyes of Pauguk 
Glare upon you in the darkness, 
I will share my kingdom with you, 
Ruler shall you be thenceforward 
Of the Northwest-Wind, Keewaydin, 
Of the home-wind, the Keewaydin." 

Thus was fought that famous battle 
In the dreadful days of Shah-shah, 
In the days long since departed. 
In the kingdom of the West-Wind. 
Still the hunter sees its traces 
Scattered far o'er hill and valley ; 
Sees the giant bulrush growing 
By the ponds and water-courses. 
Sees the masses of the Wawbeek 
Lying still in every valley. 

Homeward now went Hiawatha ; 
Pleasant was the landscape round him. 
Pleasant was the air above him. 
For the bitterness of anger 
Had departed wholly from him, 
From his brain the thought of vengeance. 
From his heart the burning fever. 

Only once his pace he slackened, 
Only once he paused or halted. 
Paused to purchase heads of arrows 



HIAWATHA AND MUDJEKEEWIS 



45 



Of the ancient Arrow-maker, 
In the land of the Dacotahs, 
Where the Falls of Minnehaha 
Flash and gleam among the oak-trees, 
Laugh and leap into the valley. 

There the ancient Arrow-maker 
Made his arrow-heads of sandstone, 
Arrow-heads of chalcedony, 
Arrow-heads of flint and jasper, 
Smoothed and sharpened at the edges, 
Hard and polished, keen and costly. 

With him dwelt his dark-eyed daughter. 
Wayward as the Minnehaha, 
With her moods of shade and sunshine, 
Eyes that smiled and frowned alternate, 
Feet as rapid as the river. 
Tresses flowing like the water. 
And as musical a laughter : 
And he named her from the river. 
From the water-fall he named her, 
Minnehaha, Laughing Water. 

Was it then for heads of arrows. 
Arrow-heads of chalcedony. 
Arrow-heads of flint and jasper, 
That my Hiawatha halted 
In the land of the Dacotahs ? 

Was it not to see the maiden, 





46 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 




See the face of Laughing Water 
Peeping from behind the curtain. 
Hear the rustling of her garments 
From behind the waving curtain. 
As one sees the Minnehaha 
Gleaming, glancing through the branches. 
As one hears the Laughing Water 
From behind its screen of branches ? 

Who shall say what thoughts and visions 
Fill the fiery brains of young men ? 
Who shall say what dreams of beauty 
Filled the heart of Hiawatha ? 
All he told to old Nokomis, 
When he reached the lodge at sunset, 
Was the meeting with his father. 
Was his fight with Mudjekeewis ; 
Not a word he said of arrows. 
Not a word of Laughing Water. 





'IC^ 



J^iatDatliaV fasting 



You shall hear how Hiawatha 
Prayed and fasted in the forest, 
Not for greater skill in hunting, 
Not for greater craft in fishing. 
Not for triumphs in the battle, 





48 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

And renown among the warriors, 
But for profit of the people, 
For advantage of the nations. 

First he built a lodge for fasting. 
Built a wigwam in the forest. 
By the shining Big-Sea-Water, 
In the blithe and pleasant Spring-time, 
In the Moon of Leaves he built it, 
And, with dreams and visions many, 
Seven whole days and nights he fasted. 

On the first day of his fasting 
Through the leafy woods he wandered ; 
Saw the deer start from the thicket, 
Saw the rabbit in his burrow. 
Heard the pheasant, Bena, drumming, 
Heard the squirrel, Adjidaumo, 
Rattling in his hoard of acorns, 
Saw the pigeon, the Omeme, 
Building nests among the pine-trees. 
And in flocks the wild goose, Wawa, 
Flying to the fen-lands northward, 
Whirring, waihng far above him. 
" Master of Life ! " he cried, desponding, 
" Must our lives depend on these things ? " 

On the next day of his fasting 
By the river's brink he wandered, 
Through the Muskoday, the meadow. 



HIAWATHA'S FASTING 49 

Saw the wild rice, Mahnomonee, 
Saw the blueberry, Meenahga, 
And the strawberry, Odahmin, 
And the gooseberry, Shahbomin, 
And the grape-vine, the Bemahgut, 
Traihng o'er the alder-branches, 
Filling all the air with fragrance ! 
" Master of Life ! " he cried, desponding, 
" Must our lives depend on these things ? " 
On the third day of his fasting 
By the lake he sat and pondered, 
By the still, transparent water ; 
Saw the sturgeon, Nahma, leaping, 
Scattering drops like beads of wampum, 
Saw the yellow perch, the Sahwa, 
Like a sunbeam in the water, 
Saw the pike, the Maskenozha, 
And the herring, Okahahwis, 
And the Shawgashee, the craw-fish ! 
" Master of Life ! " he cried, desponding, 
" Must our lives depend on these things ? " 
On the fourth day of his fasting 
In his lodge he lay exhausted ; 
From his couch of leaves and branches 
Gazing with half -open eyelids, 
Full of shadowy dreams and visions, 
On the dizzy, swimming landscape. 





so THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

On the gleaming of the water. 
On the splendor of the sunset. 

And he saw a youth approaching, 
Dressed in garments green and yellow 
Coming through the purple twilight, 
Through the splendor of the sunset ; 
Plumes of green bent o'er his forehead, 
And his hair was soft and golden. 

Standing at the open doorway, 
Long he looked at Hiawatha, 
Looked with pity and compassion 
On his wasted form and features. 
And, in accents like the sighing 
Of the South- Wind in the tree-tops. 
Said he, " my Hiawatha ! 
All your prayers are heard in heaven, 
For you pray not like the others ; 
Not for greater skill in hunting, 
Not for greater craft in fishing. 
Not for triumph in the battle. 
Nor renown among the warriors. 
But for profit of the people, 
For advantage of the nations. 

" From the Master of Life descending, 
I, the friend of man, Mondamin, 
Come to warn you and instruct you. 
How by struggle and by labor 



ii 



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^Huofl^l^^^^^H 









HIAWATHA'S FASTING 5^ 

You shall gain what you have prayed for. 
Rise up from your bed of branches, 
Rise, youth, and wrestle with me ! " 

Faint with famine, Hiawatha 
Started from his bed of branches, 
From the twilight of his wigwam 
Forth into the flush of sunset 
Came, and wrestled with Mondamin ; 
At his touch he felt new courage 
Throbbing in his brain and bosom, 
Felt new hfe and hope and vigor 
Run through every nerve and fibre. 

So they wrestled there together 
In the glory of the sunset. 
And the more they strove and struggled, 
Stronger still grew Hiawatha ; 
Till the darkness fell around them. 
And the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, 
From her nest among the pine-trees. 
Gave a cry of lamentation, 
Gave a scream of pain and famine. 

" 'T is enough ! " then said Mondamin, 
Smiling upon Hiawatha, 
" But to-morrow, when the sun sets, 
I will come again to try you." 
And he vanished, and was seen not ; 
Whether sinking as the rain sinks. 





52 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Whether rising as the mists rise, 
Hiawatha saw not, knew not, 
Only saw that he had vanished, 
Leaving him alone and fainting. 
With the misty lake below him, 
And the reeling stars above him. 

On the morrow and the next day. 
When the sun through heaven descending. 
Like a red and burning cinder 
From the hearth of the Great Spirit, 
Fell into the western waters. 
Came Mondamin for the trial. 
For the strife with Hiawatha ; 
Came as silent as the dew comes. 
From the empty air appearing, 
Into empty air returning, 
Taking shape when earth it touches. 
But invisible to all men 
In its coming and its going. 

Thrice they wrestled there together 
In the glory of the sunset. 
Till the darkness fell around them. 
Till the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, 
From her nest among the pine-trees, 
Uttered her loud cry of famine. 
And Mondamin paused to listen. 

Tall and beautiful he stood there, 
In his garments green and yellow ; 



HIAWATHA'S FASTING 53 

To and fro his plumes above him 
Waved and nodded with his breathing, 
And the sweat of the encounter 
Stood Uke drops of dew upon him. 

And he cried, " Hiawatha ! 
Bravely have you wrestled with me, 
Thrice have wrestled stoutly with me, 
And the Master of Life, who sees us. 
He will give to you the triumph ! " 

Then he smiled, and said : " To-morrow 
Is the last day of your conflict. 
Is the last day of your fasting. 
You will conquer and o'ercome me ; 
Make a bed for me to lie in. 
Where the rain may fall upon me. 
Where the sun may come and warm me ; 
Strip these garments, green and yellow, 
Strip this nodding plumage from me, 
Lay me in the earth, and make it 
Soft and loose and light above me. 

" Let no hand disturb my slumber. 
Let no weed nor worm molest me, 
Let not Kahgahgee, the raven. 
Come to haunt me and molest me. 
Only come yourself to watch me, 
Till I wake, and start, and quicken. 
Till I leap into the sunshine." 

And thus saying, he departed ; 







54 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Peacefully slept Hiawatha, 
But he heard the Wawonaissa, 
Heard the whippoorvvill complaining. 
Perched upon his lonely wigwam ; 
Heard the rushing Sebowisha, 
Heard the rivulet rippling near him. 
Talking to the darksome forest ; 
Heard the sighing of the branches, 
As they lifted and subsided 
At the passing of the night-wind, 
Heard them, as one hears in slumber 
Far-off murmurs, dreamy whispers : 
Peacefully slept Hiawatha. 

On the morrow came Nokomis, 
On the seventh day of his fasting, 
Came with food for Hiawatha, 
Came imploring and bewailing. 
Lest his hunger should o'ercome him. 
Lest his fasting should be fatal. 

But he tasted not, and touched not. 
Only said to her, " Nokomis, 
Wait until the sun is setting, 
Till the darkness falls around us, 
Till the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, 
Crying from the desolate marshes. 
Tells us that the day is ended." 

Homeward weeping went Nokomis, 



HIAWATHA'S FASTING 



55 



Sorrowing for her Hiawatha, 

Fearing lest his strength should fail him, 

Lest his fasting should be fatal. 

He meanwhile sat weary waiting 

For the coming of Mondamin, 

Till the shadows, pointing eastward, 

Lengthened over field and forest, 

Till the sun dropped from the heaven. 

Floating on the waters westward. 

As a red leaf in the Autumn 

Falls and floats upon the water. 

Falls and sinks into its bosom. 

And behold ! the young Mondamin, 
With his soft and shining tresses. 
With his garments green and yellow, 
With his long and glossy plumage. 
Stood and beckoned at the doorway. 
And as one in slumber walking. 
Pale and haggard, but undaunted. 
From the wigwam Hiawatha 
Came and wrestled with Mondamin. 

Round about him spun the landscape. 
Sky and forest reeled together, 
And his strong heart leaped within him, 
As the sturgeon leaps and struggles 
In a net to break its meshes. 
Like a ring of fire around him 





\\ 




56 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Blazed and flared the red horizon, 
And a hundred suns seemed looking 
At the combat of the wrestlers. 

Suddenly upon the greensward 
All alone stood Hiawatha, 
Panting with his wild exertion, 
Palpitating with the struggle ; 
And before him breathless, lifeless, 
Lay the youth, with hair dishevelled. 
Plumage torn, and garments tattered. 
Dead he lay there in the sunset. 

And victorious Hiawatha 
Made the grave as he commanded. 
Stripped the garments from Mondamin, 
Stripped his tattered plumage from him. 
Laid him in the earth, and made it 
Soft and loose and light above him ; 
And the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, 
From the melancholy moorlands. 
Gave a cry of lamentation. 
Gave a cry of pain and anguish ! 

Homeward then went Hiawatha 
To the lodge of old Nokomis, 
And the seven days of his fasting 
Were accompUshed and completed. 
But the place was not forgotten 
Where he wrestled with Mondamin ; 
Nor forgotten nor neglected 



HIAWATHA'S FASTING 



57 



Was the grave where lay Mondamui, 
Sleeping in the rain and sunshine, 
Where his scattered plumes and garments 
Faded in the rain and sunshine. 

Day by day did Hiawatha 
Go to wait and watch beside it ; 
Kept the dark mould soft above it, 
Kept it clean from weeds and insects, 
Drove away, with scoffs and shoutings, 
Kahgahgee, the king of ravens. 

Till at length a small green feather 
From the earth shot slowly upward, 
Then another and another, 
And before the Summer ended 
Stood the maize in all its beauty. 
With its shining robes about it. 
And its long, soft, yellow tresses ; 
And in rapture Hiawatha 
Cried aloud, " It is Mondamin ! 
Yes, the friend of man, Mondamin ! " 

Then he called to old Nokomis 
And lagoo, the great boaster, 
Showed them where the maize was growing. 
Told them of his wondrous vision. 
Of his wrestling and his triumph. 
Of this new gift to the nations. 
Which should be their food forever. 

And still later, when the Autumn 




58 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Changed the long, green leaves to yellow. 
And the soft and juicy kernels 
Grew like wampum hard and yellow, 
Then the ripened ears he gathered. 
Stripped the withered husks from off them, 
As he once had stripped the wrestler. 
Gave the first Feast of Mondamin, 
And made known unto the people 
This new gift of the Great Spirit. 





VI 



Two good friends had Hiawatha, 

Singled out from all the others, 

Bound to him in closest union, 

And to whom he gave the right hand 

Of his heart, in joy and sorrow ; 

Chibiabos, the musician. 

And the very strong man, Kwasind. 

Straight between them ran the pathway, 
Never grew the grass upon it ; 




6o ' THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Singing birds, that utter falsehoods, 
Story-tellers, mischief-makers, 
Found no eager ear to listen, 
Could not breed ill-will between them, 
For they kept each other's counsel. 
Spake with naked hearts together. 
Pondering much and much contriving 
How the tribes of men might prosper. 

Most beloved by Hiawatha 
Was the gentle Chibiabos, 
He the best of all musicians. 
He the sweetiBst of all singers. 
Beautiful and childHke was he. 
Brave as man is, soft as woman. 
Pliant as a wand of willow. 
Stately as a deer with antlers. 

When he sang, the village listened ; 
All the warriors gathered round him. 
All the women came to hear him ; 
Now he stirred their souls to passion. 
Now he melted them to pity. 

From the hollow reeds he fashioned 
Flutes so musical and mellow, 
That the brook, the Sebowisha, 
Ceased to murmur in the woodland. 
That the wood-birds ceased from singing. 
And the squirrel, Adjidaumo, 



HIAWATHA'S FRIENDS 



6l 



Ceased his chatter in the oak-tree, 
And the rabbit, the Wabasso, 
Sat upright to look and listen. 

Yes, the brook, the Sebowisha, 
Pausing, said, " O Chibiabos, 
Teach my waves to flow in music, 
Softly as your words in singing ! " 

Yes, the bluebird, the Owaissa, 
Envious, said, " Chibiabos, 
Teach me tones as wild and wayward, 
Teach me songs as full of frenzy ! " 

Yes, the robin, the Opechee, 
Joyous, said, " O Chibiabos, 
Teach me tones as sweet and tender, 
Teach me songs as full of gladness ! " 

And the whippoorwill, Wawonaissa, 
Sobbing, said, " Chibiabos, 
Teach me tones as melancholy. 
Teach me songs as full of sadness ! " 

All the many sounds of nature 
Borrowed sweetness from his singing ; 
All the hearts of men were softened 
By the pathos of his music ; 
For he sang of peace and freedom, 
Sang of beauty, love, and longing ; 
Sang of death, and life undying 
In the Islands of the Blessed, 





62 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

In the kingdom of Ponemah, 
In the land of the Hereafter. 

Very dear to Hiawatha 
Was the gentle Chibiabos, 
He the best of all musicians, 
He the sweetest of all singers ; 
For his gentleness he loved him, 
And the magic of his singing. 

Dear, too, unto Hiawatha 
Was the very strong man, Kwasind, 
He the strongest of all mortals. 
He the mightiest among many ; 
For his very strength he loved him, 
For his strength allied to goodness. 

Idle in his youth was Kwasind, 
Very listless, dull, and dreamy, 
Never played with other children. 
Never fished and never hunted. 
Not hke other children was he ; 
But they saw that much he fasted, 
Much his Manito entreated. 
Much besought his Guardian Spirit. 

" Lazy Kwasind ! " said his mother, 
" In my work you never help me ! 
In the Summer you are roaming 
Idly in the fields and forest ; 
In the Winter you are cowering 



HIAWATHA'S FRIENDS 63 

O'er the firebrands in the wigwam ! 
In the coldest days of Winter 
I must break the ice for fishing ; 
With my nets you never help me ! 
At the door my nets are hanging, 
Dripping, freezing with the water ; 
Go and wring them, Yenadizze ! 
Go and dry them in the sunshine ! " 

Slowly, from the ashes, Kwasind 
Rose, but made no angry answer ; 
From the lodge went forth in silence, 
Took the nets, that hung together, 
Dripping, freezing at the doorway. 
Like a wisp of straw he wrung them. 
Like a wisp of straw he broke them. 
Could not wring them without breaking, 
Such the strength was in his fingers. 

" Lazy Kwasind ! " said his father, 
" In the hunt you never help me ; 
Every bow you touch is broken. 
Snapped asunder every arrow ; 
Yet come with me to the forest, 
You shall bring the hunting homeward." 

Down a narrow pass they wandered. 
Where a brooklet led them onward. 
Where the trail of deer and bison 
Marked the soft mud on the margin. 




64 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Till they found all further passage 
Shut agamst them, barred securely 
By the trunks of trees uprooted, 
Lying lengthwise, lying crosswise, 
And forbidding further passage. 

" We must go back," said the old man, 
" O'er these logs we cannot clamber ; 
Not a woodchuck could get through them, 
Not a squirrel clamber o'er them ! " 
And straightway his pipe he lighted, 
And sat down to smoke and ponder. 
But before his pipe was finished, 
Lo ! the path was cleared before him ; 
All the trunks had Kwasind hfted. 
To the right hand, to the left hand. 
Shot the pine-trees swift as arrows. 
Hurled the cedars light as lances. 

" Lazy Kwasind ! " said the young men, 
y jl As they sported in the meadow : 

" Why stand idly looking at us. 
Leaning on the rock behind you ? 
Come and wrestle with the others. 
Let us pitch the quoit together ! " 

Lazy Kwasind made no answer, 
To their challenge made no answer. 
Only rose, and slowly turning, 
Seized the huge rock in his fingers, 



N 



HIAWATHA'S FRIENDS 



65 



Tore it from its deep foundation, 
Poised it in the air a moment, 
Pitched it sheer into the river, 
Sheer into the swift Pauwating, 
Where it still is seen in Summer. 

Once as down that foaming river, 
Down the rapids of Pauwating, 
Kwasind sailed with his companions. 
In the stream he saw a beaver, 
Saw Ahmeek, the King of Beavers, 
Struggling with the rushing currents, 
Kising, sinking in the water. 

Without speaking, without pausing, 
Kwasind leaped into the river. 
Plunged beneath the bubbling surface. 
Through the whirlpools chased the beaver. 
Followed him among the islands. 
Stayed so long beneath the water. 
That his terrified companions 
Cried, " Alas ! good-by to Kwasind ! 
We shall never more see Kwasind ! " 
But he reappeared triumphant. 
And upon his shining shoulders 
Brought the beaver, dead and dripping, 
Brought the King of all the Beavers. 

And these two, as I have told you, 
Were the friends of Hiawatha, 





66 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Chibiabos, the musician, 
And the very strong man, Kwasind. 
Long they Hved in peace together, 
Spake with naked hearts together, 
Pondering much and much contriving 
How the tribes of men might prosper. 





-^ 



VII 



J^iatDatl^aV ^Sailing 



Give me of your bark, Birch-tree ! 
Of your yellow bark, Birch-tree ! 
Growing by the rushing river. 
Tall and stately in the valley ! 
I a light canoe will build me. 
Build a swift Cheemaun for sailing. 
That shall float upon the river, 
Like a yellow leaf in Autumn, 
Like a yellow water-lily ! 

" Lay aside your cloak, Birch-tree ! 
Lay aside your white-skin wrapper, 
For the Summer-time is coming. 
And the sun is warm in heaven. 
And you need no white-skin wrapper ! " 




68 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 




Thus aloud cried Hiawatha 
In the soHtary forest, 
By the rushing Taquamenaw, 
When the birds were singing gayly, 
I In the Moon of Leaves were singing, 
And the sun, from sleep awaking, 
Started up and said, " Behold me ! 
Geezis, the great Sun, behold me ! " 

And the tree with all its branches 
Rustled in the breeze of morning, 
Saying, with a sigh of patience, 
" Take my cloak, Hiawatha ! " 

With his knife the tree he girdled ; 
Just beneath its lowest branches. 
Just above the roots, he cut it. 
Till the sap came oozing outward ; 
Down the trunk, from top to bottom. 
Sheer he cleft the bark asunder. 
With a wooden wedge he raised it. 
Stripped it from the trunk unbroken. 

" Give me of your boughs, Cedar ! 
Of your strong and pliant branches. 
My canoe to make more steady. 
Make more strong and firm beneath me ! 

Through the summit of the Cedar 
Went a sound, a cry of horror. 
Went a murmur of resistance ; 



HIAWATHA'S SAILING 69 

But it whispered, bending downward, 
" Take my boughs, Hiawatha ! " 

Down he hewed the boughs of cedar, 
Shaped them straightway to a frame-work, 
Like two bows he formed and shaped them, 
Like two bended bows together. 

" Give me of your roots, Tamarack ! 
Of your fibrous roots^ Larch-tree ! 
My canoe to bind together, 
So to bind the ends toofether 
That the water may not enter. 
That the river may not wet me ! " 

And the Larch, with all its fibres. 
Shivered in the air of morning. 
Touched his forehead with its tassels, 
Said, with one long sigh of sorrow, 
" Take them all, Hiawatha ! " 

From the earth he tore the fibres. 
Tore the tough roots of the Larch-tree, 
Closely sewed the bark together, 
Bound it closely to the frame-work. 

" Give me of your balm, O Fir-tree ! \i 





Of your balsam and your resin, 
So to close the seams together. 
That the Avater may not enter, 
Tliat the river may not wet me ! " 
And the Fir-tree, tall and sombre, 



( 



70 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Sobbed through all its robes of darkness. 
Rattled like a shore with pebbles. 
Answered wailing, answered weeping, 

" Take my balm, Hiawatha ! " 

And he took the tears of balsam, 
Took the resin of the Fir-tree, 
Smeared therewith each seam and fissure. 
Made each crevice safe from water. 

" Give me of your quills, Hedgehog ! 
All your quills, Kagh, the Hedgehog ! 
I will make a necklace of them. 
Make a girdle for my beauty. 
And two stars to deck her bosom ! " 
From a hollow tree the Hedgehog 
With his sleepy eyes looked at him, 
Shot his shining quills, like arrows. 
Saying with a drowsy murmur. 
Through the tangle of his whiskers, 

" Take my quills, Hiawatha ! " 

From the ground the quills he gathered. 
All the little shining arrows, 
Stained them red and blue and yellow, 
With the juice of roots and berries ; 
Into his canoe he wrought them, 
Round its waist a shining girdle, 
Round its bows a gleaming necklace. 
On its breast two stars resplendent. 



HIAWATHA'S SAILING 

Thus the Bu^ch Canoe was biiilded 
In the valley, by the river, 
In the bosom of the forest ; 
And the forest's life was in it, 
All its mystery and its magic, 
All the lightness of the birch-tree, 
All the toughness of the cedar. 
All the larch's supple sinews ; 
And it floated on the river 
Like a yellow leaf in Autmnn, 
Like a yellow water-lily. 

Paddles none had Hiawatha, 
Paddles none he had or needed, 
For his thoughts as paddles served him. 
And his wishes served to guide him ; 
Swift or slow at will he glided. 
Veered to right or left at pleasure. 

Then he called aloud to Kwasind, 
To his friend, the strong man, Kwasind, 
Saying, " Help me clear this river 
Of its sunken logs and sand-bars." 

Straight into the river Kwasind 
Plunged as if he were an otter. 
Dived as if he were a beaver. 
Stood up to his waist in water. 
To his arm-pits in the river, 
Swam and shouted in the river, 



71 





72 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Tugged at sunken logs and branches, 
With his hands he scooped the sand-bars, 
With his feet the ooze and tangle. 

And thus sailed my Hiawatha 
Down the rushing Taquamenaw, 
Sailed through all its bends and windings, 
Sailed through all its deeps and shallows, 
While his friend, the strong man, Kwasind, 
Swam the deeps, the shallows waded. 

Up and down the river went they. 
In and out among its islands. 
Cleared its bed of root and sand-bar. 
Dragged the dead trees from its channel. 
Made its passage safe and certain, 
Made a pathway for the people. 
From its springs among the mountains. 
To the waters of Pauwating, 
To the bay of Taquamenaw. 




mK^ 



m 



t 






if 



'\ 




VIII 



]^tatoatl)a'^ f i^fting 



Forth upon the Gitche Gumee, 
On the shining Big-Sea- Water, 
With his fishing-line of cedar. 
Of the twisted bark of cedar, 
Forth to catch the sturgeon Nahma, 
Mishe-Nahma, King of Fishes, 
In his birch canoe exulting 
All alone went Hiawatha. 



74 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Through the clear, transparent water 
He could see the fishes swimming 
Far down in the depths below him ; 
See the yellow perch, the Sahwa, 
Like a sunbeam in the water, 
See the Shawgashee, the craw-fish, 
Like a spider on the bottom, 
On the white and sandy bottom. 

At the stern sat Hiawatha, 
With his fishing-line of cedar ; 
In his plumes the breeze of morning 
Played as in the hemlock branches 5 
On the bows, with tail erected, 
Sat the squirrel, Adjidaumo ; 
In his fur the breeze of morning 
Played as in the prairie grasses. 

On the white sand of the bottom 
Lay the monster Mishe-Nahma, 
Lay the sturgeon. King of Fishes ; 
Through his gills he breathed the water. 
With his fins he fanned and winnowed. 
With his tail he swept the sand-floor. 

There he lay in all his armor ; 
On each side a shield to guard him, 
Plates of bone upon his forehead, 
Down his sides and back and shoulders 
Plates of bone with spines projecting ! 



HIAWATHA'S FISHING /$ 

Painted was he with his war-paints, 
Stripes of yellow, red, and azure, 
Spots of brown and spots of sable ; 
And he lay there on the bottom. 
Fanning with his fins of purple, 
As above him Hiawatha 
In his birch canoe came sailing, 
With his fishing-Hne of cedar. 

" Take my bait," cried Hiawatha, 
Down into the depths beneath him, 

" Take my bait, Sturgeon, Nahma ! 
Come up from below the water. 
Let us see which is the stronger ! " 
And he dropped his hne of cedar 
Through the clear, transparent water. 
Waited vainly for an answer, 
Long sat waiting for an answer, 
And repeating loud and louder, 

" Take my bait, King of Fishes ! " 
Quiet lay the sturgeon, Nahma, 
Fanning slowly in the water. 
Looking up at Hiawatha, 
Listening to his call and clamor, 
His unnecessary tumult. 
Till he wearied of the shouting ; 
And he said to the Kenozha, 
To the pike, the Maskenozha, 






J6 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

" Take the bait of this rude fellow. 
Break the line of Hiawatha ! " 

In his fingers Hiawatha 
Felt the loose line jerk and tighten ; 
As he drew it in, it tugged so 
That the birch canoe stood endwise, 
Like a birch log in the water, 
With the squirrel, Adjidaumo, 
Perched and frisking on the summit. 

Full of scorn was Hiawatha 
When he saw the fish rise upward. 
Saw the pike, the Maskenozha, 
Coming nearer, nearer to him, 
And he shouted through the w^ater, 
" Esa ! esa ! shame upon you ! 
You are but the pike, Kenozha, 
You are not the fish I wanted, 
You are not the King of Fishes ! " 

Reeling downward to the bottom 
Sank the pike in great confusion. 
And the mighty sturgeon, Nahma, 
Said to Ugudwash, the sun-fish. 
To the bream, with scales of crimson, 
" Take the bait of this great boaster, 
Break the line of Hiawatha ! " 

Slowly upward, wavering, gleaming, 
Rose the Ugudwash, the sun-fish, 



HIAWATHA'S FISHING 77 

Seized the line of Hiawatha, 
Swung with all his weight upon it, 
Made a whirlpool in the water. 
Whirled the birch canoe in circles, 
Round and round in gurgling eddies. 
Till the circles in the water 
Reached the far-off sandy beaches, 
Till the water-flags and rushes 
Nodded on the distant margins. 

But when Hiawatha saw him 
Slowly rising through the water. 
Lifting up his disk refulgent, 
Loud he shouted in derision, 
" Esa ! esa ! shame upon you ! 
You are Ugudwash, the sun-fish, 
You are not the fish I wanted. 
You are not the King of Fishes ! " 

Slowly downward, wavering, gleaming 
Sank the Ugudwash, the sun-fish, 
And again the sturgeon, Nahma, 
Heard the shout of Hiawatha, 
Heard his challenge of defiance, 
The unnecessary tumult, 
Ringing far across the water. 

From the white sand of the bottom 
Up he rose with angry gesture, 
Quivering in each nerve and fibre, 




7S 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 



Clashing all his plates of armor, 
Gleaming bright with all his war-paint ; 
In his wrath he darted upward. 
Flashing leaped into the sunshine, 
Opened his great jaws, and swallowed 
Both canoe and Hiawatha. 

Down into that darksome cavern 
Plunged the headlong Hiawatha, 
As a log on some black river 
Shoots and plunges down the rapids, 
Found himself in utter darkness. 
Groped about in helpless wonder, 
Till he felt a great heart beating. 
Throbbing in that utter darkness. 

And he smote it in his anger. 
With his fist, the heart of Nahma, 
Felt the mighty King of Fishes 
Shudder through each nerve and fibre. 
Heard the water gurgle round him 
As he leaped and staggered through it, 
Sick at heart, and faint and weary. 

Crosswise then did Hiawatha 
Drag his birch-canoe for safety. 
Lest from out the jaws of Nahma, 
In the turmoil and confusion. 
Forth he might be hurled and perish. 
And the squirrel, Adjidaumo, 



HIAWATHA'S FISHING 



79 



Frisked and chattered very gayly, 
Toiled and tugged with Hiawatha 
Till the labor was completed. 

Then said Hiawatha to him, 
* my little friend, the squirrel, 
Bravely have you toiled to help me ; 
Take the thanks of Hiawatha, 
And the name which now he gives you ; 
For hereafter and forever 
Boys shall call you Adjidaumo, 
Tail-in-air the boys shall call you ! " 

And again the sturgeon, Nahma, 
Gasped and quivered in the water, 
Then was still, and drifted landward 
Till he grated on the pebbles. 
Till the Hstening Hiawatha 
Heard him grate upon the margin, 
Felt him strand upon the pebbles. 
Knew that Nahma, King of Fishes, 
Lay there dead upon the margin. 

Then he heard a clang and flapping. 
As of many wings assembling, 
Heard a screaming and confusion. 
As of birds of prey contending. 
Saw a gleam of light above him. 
Shining through the ribs of Nahma, 
Saw the glittering eyes of sea-gulls, 




.* 




8o 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 





Of Kayoslik, the sea-gulls, peering, 
Gazing at him through the opening, 
Heard them saying to each other, 

" 'T is our brother, Hiawatha ! " 

And he shouted from below them, 
Cried exulting from the caverns : 

" ye sea-gulls ! my brothers ! 
I have slain the sturgeon, Nahma ; 
Make the rifts a little larger. 
With your claws the openings widen. 
Set me free from this dark prison, 
And henceforward and forever 
Men shall speak of your achievements, 
Calling you Kayoshk, the sea-gulls, 
Yes, Kayoshk, the Noble Scratchers ! " 
And the wild and clamorous sea-gulls 
Toiled with beak and claws together, 
Made the rifts and openings wider 
In the mighty ribs of Nahma, 
And from peril and from prison, 
From the body of the sturgeon. 
From the peril of the water. 
They released my Hiawatha. 

He was standing near his wigwam. 
On the margin of the water, 
And he called to old Nokomis, 
Called and beckoned to Nokomis, 



HIAWATHA'S FISHING 



8l 



Pointed to the sturgeon, Nahma, 
Lying lifeless on the pebbles, 
With the sea-gulls feeding on him. 

" I have slain the Mishe-Nahma, 
Slain the King of Fishes ! " said he ; 
" Look ! the sea-gulls feed upon him, 
Yes, my friends Kayoshk, the sea-gulls ; 
Drive them not away, Nokomis, 
They have saved me from great peril 
In the body of the sturgeon. 
Wait until their meal is ended. 
Till their craws are full with feasting, 
Till they homeward fly, at sunset, 
To their nests among the marshes ; 
Then bring all your pots and kettles. 
And make oil for us in Winter." 

And she waited till the sun set. 
Till the palKd moon, the Night-sun, 
Rose above the tranquil water. 
Till Kayoshk, the sated sea-gulls. 
From their banquet rose with clamor. 
And across the fiery sunset 
Winged their way to far-off islands, 
To their nests among the rushes. 

To his sleep went Hiawatha, 
And Nokomis to her labor. 
Toiling patient in the moonlight. 




82 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 



Till the sun and moon changed places, 
Till the sky was red with sunrise, 
And Kayoshk, the hungry sea-gulls, 
Came back from the reedy islands, 
Clamorous for their morning banquet. 

Three whole days and nights alternate 
Old Nokomis and the sea-gulls 
Stripped the oily flesh of Nahma, 
Till the waves washed through the rib-bones, 
Till the sea-gulls came no longer, 
And upon the sands lay nothing 
But the skeleton of Nahma. 




IX 



On the shores of Gitche Gumee, 
Of the shining Big-Sea-Water, 
Stood Nokomis, the old woman, 
Pointing with her finger westward, 
O'er the water pointing westward. 
To the purple clouds of sunset. 

Fiercely the red sun descending 
Burned his way along the heavens, 
Set the sky on fire behind him. 
As war-parties, when retreating. 



84 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 




Burn the prairies on their war-trail ; 
And the moon, the Night-sun, eastward, 
Suddenly starting from his ambush. 
Followed fast those bloody footprints, 
Followed in that fiery war-trail. 
With its glare upon his features. 

And Nokomis, the old woman. 
Pointing with her finger westward. 
Spake these words to Hiawatha : 
" Yonder dwells the great Pearl-Feather, 
Megissogwon, the Magician, 
Manito of Wealth and Wampum, 
Guarded by his fiery serpents. 
Guarded by the black pitch-water. 
You can see his fiery serpents. 
The Kenabeek, the great serpents. 
Coifing, playing in the water ; 
You can see the black pitch-water 
Stretching far away beyond them. 
To the purple clouds of sunset ! 

" He it was who slew my father, 
By his wicked wiles and cunning, 
When he from the moon descended. 
When he came on earth to seek me. 
He, the mightiest of Magicians, 
Sends the fever from the marshes, 
Sends the pestilential vapors. 



HIAWATHA AND THE PEARL-FEATHER 85 

Sends the poisonous exhalations, 
Sends the white fog from the fen-lands, 
Sends disease and death among us ! 

" Take your bow, Hiawatha, 
Take your arrows, jasper-headed, 
Take your war-club, Puggawaugun, 
And your mittens, Minjekahwun, 
And your birch-canoe for sailing, 
And the oil of Mishe-Nahma, 
So to smear its sides, that swiftly 
You may pass the black pitch-water ; 
Slay this merciless magician, 
Save the people from the fever 
That he breathes across the fen-lands. 
And avenge my father's murder ! " 

Straightway then my Hiawatha 
Armed himself with all his war-gear. 
Launched his birch-canoe for sailing ; 
With his palm its sides he patted. 
Said with glee, " Cheemaun, my darling 
my Birch-canoe ! leap forward. 
Where you see the fiery serpents. 
Where you see the black pitch- water ! " 

Forward leaped Cheemaun exulting, 
And the noble Hiawatha 
Sang his war-song wild and woful. 
And above him the war-eagle. 




m 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 





The Keneu, the great war-eagle, 
Master of all fowls with feathers, 
Screamed and hurtled through the heavens. 

Soon he reached the fiery serpents, 
The Kenabeek, the great serpents, 
Lying huge upon the water, 
Sparkling, rippling in the water. 
Lying coiled across the passage. 
With their blazing crests uplifted. 
Breathing fiery fogs and vapors, 
So that none could pass beyond them. 

But the fearless Hiawatha 
Cried aloud, and spake in this wise : 

" Let me pass my way, Kenabeek, 
Let me go upon my journey ! " 
And they answered, hissing fiercely. 
With their fiery breath made answer : 

" Back, go back ! Shaugodaya ! 
Back to old Nokomis, Faint-heart ! " 

Then the angry Hiawatha 
Raised his mighty bow of ash-tree, 
Seized his arrows, jasper-headed. 
Shot them fast among the serpents ; 
Every twanging of the bow-string 
Was a war-cry and a death-cry. 
Every whizzing of an arrow 
Was a death-song of Kenabeek. 



HIAWATHA AND THE PEARL-FEATHER Sy 

Weltering in the bloody water, 
Dead lay all the fiery serpents, 
And among them Hiawatha 
Harmless sailed, and cried exulting : 
" Onward, Cheemaun, my darling ! 
Onward to the black pitch-water ! " 

Then he took the oil of Nahma, 
And the bows and sides anointed. 
Smeared them well with oil, that swiftly 
He might pass the black pitch-water. 

All night long he sailed upon it. 
Sailed upon that sluggish water. 
Covered with its mould of ages, 
Black with rotting water-rushes. 
Rank with flags and leaves of lilies. 
Stagnant, lifeless, dreary, dismal. 
Lighted by the shimmering moonlight, 
And by will-o'-the-wisps illumined. 
Fires by ghosts of dead men kindled. 
In their weary night-encampments. 

All the air was white with moonlight. 
All the water black with shadow, 
And around him the Suggema, 
The mosquito, sang his war-song, 
And the fire-flies, Wah-wah-taysee, 
Waved their torches to mislead him ; 
And the bull-frog, the Dahinda, 




i 




THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Thrust his head into the moonhght, 
Fixed his yellow eyes upon him, 
Sobbed and sank beneath the surface ; 
And anon a thousand whistles, 
Answered over all the fen-lands, 
And the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, 
Far off on the reedy margin. 
Heralded the hero's coming. 

Westward thus fared Hiawatha, 
Toward the realm of Megissogwon, 
Toward the land of the Pearl-Feather, 
Till the level moon stared at him, 
In his face stared pale and haggard, 
Till the sun was hot behind him, 
Till it burned upon his shoulders. 
And before him on the upland 
He could see the Shining Wigwam 
Of the Manito of Wampum, 
Of the mightiest of Magicians. 

Then once more Cheemaun he patted, 
To his birch-canoe said, " Onward ! " 
And it stirred in all its fibres. 
And with one great bound of triumph 
Leaped across the water-lilies. 
Leaped through tangled flags and rushes. 
And upon the beach beyond them 
Dry-shod landed Hiawatha. 






HIAWATHA AND THE PEARL-FEATHER 



Straioflit he took his bow of ash-tree, 
On the sand one end he rested, 
With his knee he pressed the middle, 
Stretched the faithful bow-string tighter. 
Took an arrow, jasper-headed. 
Shot it at the Shining Wigwam, 
Sent it singing as a herald, 
As a bearer of his message, 
Of his challenge loud and lofty : 
" Come forth from your lodge, Pearl-Feather ! 
Hiawatha waits your coming ! " 

Straightway from the Shining Wigwam 
Came the mighty Megissogwon, 
Tall of stature, broad of shoulder. 
Dark and terrible in aspect. 
Clad from head to foot in wampum. 
Armed with all his warlike weapons. 
Painted like the sky of morning, lf§{ 

Streaked with crimson, blue, and yellow, '{ 
Crested with great eagle- feathers, ^^^ 

Streaming upward, streaming outward. 

" Well I know you, Hiawatha ! " 
Cried he in a voice of thunder. 
In a tone of loud derision. 
" Hasten back, Shaugodaya ! 
Hasten back among the women. 
Back to old Nokomis, Faint-heart ! 





90 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 




I will slay you as you stand there, 
As of old I slew her father ! " 

But my Hiawatha answered, 
Nothing daunted, fearing nothing : 
'' Big words do not smite like war-clubs, 
Boastful breath is not a bow-string, 
Taunts are not so sharp as arrows. 
Deeds are better things than words are. 
Actions mightier than boastings ! " 

Then began the greatest battle 
That the sun had ever looked on. 
That the war-birds ever witnessed. 
All a Summer's day it lasted. 
From the sunrise to the sunset ; 
For the shafts of Hiawatha 
Harmless hit the shirt of wampum. 
Harmless fell the blows he dealt it 
With his mittens, Minjekahwun, 
Harmless fell the heavy war-club ; 
It could dash the rocks asunder. 
But it could not break the meshes 
Of that magic shirt of wampum. 

Till at sunset Hiawatha, 
Leaning on his bow of ash-tree, 
Wounded, weary, and desponding. 
With his mighty war-club broken. 
With his mittens torn and tattered, 



HIAWATHA AND' THE PEARL-FEATHER 91 

And three useless arrows only, 
Paused to rest beneath a pine-tree, 
From whose branches trailed the mosses, 
And whose trunk was coated over 
With the Dead-man's Moccasin-leather, 
With the fungus white and yellow. 

Suddenly from the boughs above him 
Sang the Mama, the woodpecker : 
" Aim your arrows, Hiawatha, 
At the head of Megissogwon, 
Strike the tuft of hair upon it, 
At their roots the long black tresses ; 
There alone can he be wounded ! " 

Winged with feathers, tipped with jasper, 
Swift flew Hiawatha's arrow, 
Just as Megissogwon, stooping, 
Raised a heavy stone to throw it. 
Full upon the crown it struck him. 
At the roots of his long tresses. 
And he reeled and staggered forward. 
Plunging like a wounded bison, \f 

Yes, like Pezhekee, the bison. 
When the snow is on the prairie. 

Swifter flew the second arrow, 
In the pathway of the other. 
Piercing deeper than the other. 
Wounding sorer than the other ; 






92 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

And the knees of Megissogwon 
Shook Hke windy reeds beneath him, 
Bent and trembled like the rushes. 

But the third and latest arrow 
Swiftest flew, and wounded sorest, 
And the mighty Megissogwon 
Saw the fiery eyes of Pauguk, 
Saw the eyes of Death glare at him. 
Heard his voice call in the darkness ; 
At the feet of Hiawatha 
Lifeless lay the great Pearl-Feather, 
Lay the mightiest of Magicians. 

Then the grateful Hiawatha 
Called the Mama, the woodpecker, 
From his perch among the branches 
Of the melancholy pine-tree. 
And, in honor of his service, 
Stained with blood the tuft of feathers 
On the Httle head of Mama ; 
Even to this day he wears it, 
Wears the tuft of crimson feathers. 
As a symbol of his service. 

Then he stripped the shirt of wampum 
From the back of Megissogwon, 
As a trophy of the battle. 
As a signal of his conquest. 
On the shore he left the body, 



HIAWATHA AND THE PEARL-FEATHER 93 



Half on land and half in water, 
In the sand his feet were buried, 
And his face was in the water. 
And above him, wheeled and clamored 
The Keneu, the great war-eagle, 
Sailing round in narrower circles. 
Hovering nearer, nearer, nearer. 

From the wigwam Hiawatha 
Bore the wealth of Megissogwon, 
All his wealth of skins and wampum, 
Furs of bison and of beaver. 
Furs of sable and of ermine. 
Wampum belts and strings and pouches, 
Quivers wrought with beads of wampum, 
Filled with arrows, silver-headed. 

Homeward then he sailed exulting. 
Homeward through the black pitch-water. 
Homeward through the weltering serpents. 
With the trophies of the battle. 
With a shout and song of triumph. 

On the shore stood old Nokomis, 
On the shore stood Chibiabos, 
And the very strong man, Kwasind, 
Waiting for the hero's coming. 
Listening to his songs of triumph. 
And the people of the village 
Welcomed him with songs and dances. 






94 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Made a joyous feast, and shouted : 
" Honor be to Hiawatha ! 
He has slain the great Pearl-Feather, 
Slain the mightiest of magicians, 
Him, who sent the fiery fever. 
Sent the white fog from the fen-lands, 
Sent disease and death among us ! " 

Ever dear to Hiawatha 
Was the memory of Mama ! 
And in token of his friendship. 
As a mark of his remembrance. 
He adorned and decked his pipe-stem 
With the crimson tuft of feathers. 
With the blood-red crest of Mama. 
But the wealth of Megissogwon, 
All the trophies of the battle, 
He divided with his people. 
Shared it equally among them. 





i^iatoatfta'^ H&ooing 



" As unto the bow the cord is, 
So unto the man is woman, 
Though she bends him, she obeys him. 
Though she draws him, yet she follows, 
Useless each without the other ! " 

Thus the youthful Hiawatha 
Said within himself and pondered, 



g6 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Much perplexed by various feelings^ 
Listless, longing, hoping, fearing, 
Dreaming still of Minnehaha, 
Of the lovely Laughing Water, 
In the land of the Dacotahs. 

" Wed a maiden of your people," 
Warning said the old Nokomis ; 

" Go not eastward, go not westward, 
For a stranger, whom we know not ! 
Like a fire upon the hearth-stone 
Is a neighbor's homely daughter. 
Like the starlight or the moonlight 
Is the handsomest of strangers ! " 

Thus dissuading spake Nokomis, 
And my Hiawatha answered 
Only this : " Dear old Nokomis, 
Very pleasant is the firelight, 
But I like the starlight better. 
Better do I like the moonlight ! " 
Gravely then said old Nokomis : 

" Bring not here an idle maiden. 
Bring not here a useless woman. 
Hands unskilful, feet unwilling ; 
Bring a wife with nimble fingers. 
Heart and hand that move together, 
Feet that run on willing errands ! " 
Smiling answered Hiawatha : 



HIAWATHA'S WOOING 9/ 

" In the land of the Dacotahs 
Lives the Arrow-maker's daughter, 
Minnehaha, Laughing Water, 
Handsomest of all the women. 
I will bring her to your wigwam, 
She shall run upon your errands, 
Be your starlight, moonlight, firelight. 
Be the sunlight of my people ! " 
Still dissuading said Nokomis : 

" Bring not to my lodge a stranger 
From the land of the Dacotahs ! 
Very fierce are the Dacotahs, 
Often is there war between us. 
There are feuds yet unforgotten. 
Wounds that ache and still may open ! " 
Laughing answered Hiawatha : 

" For that reason, if no other. 
Would I wed the fair Dacotah, 
That our tribes might be united. 
That old feuds might be forgotten. 
And old wounds be healed forever ! " 

Thus departed Hiawatha 
To the land of the Dacotahs, 
To the land of handsome women ; 
Striding over moor and meadow, 
Through interminable forests. 
Through uninterrupted silence. 






98 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

With his moccasins of magic. 
At each stride a mile he measured ; 
Yet the way seemed long before him, 
And his heart outran his footsteps ; 
And he journeyed without resting, 
Till he heard the cataract's laughter, 
Heard the Falls of Minnehaha 
Calling to him through the silence. 
" Pleasant is the sound ! " he murmured, 
" Pleasant is the voice that calls me ! " 

On the outskirts of the forests, 
'Twixt the shadow and the sunshine. 
Herds of fallow deer were feeding. 
But they saw not Hiawatha ; 
To his bow he whispered, " Fail not ! " 
To his arrow whispered, " Swerve not ! ' 
Sent it singing on its errand. 
To the red heart of the roebuck ; 
Threw the deer across his shoulder. 
And sped forward without pausing. 

At the doorway of his wigwam 
Sat his ancient Arrow-maker, 
In the land of the Dacotahs, 
Making arrow-heads of jasper, 
Arrow-heads of chalcedony. 
At his side, in all her beauty. 
Sat the lovely Minnehaha, 



HIAWATHA'S WOOING 



99 



Sat his daughter, Laughing Water, 
Plaiting mats of flags and rushes ; 
Of the past the old man's thoughts were, 
And the maiden's of the future. 

He was thinking, as he sat there. 
Of the days when with such arrows 
He had struck the deer and bison, 
On the Muskoday, the meadow ; 
Shot the wild goose, fl3^ng southward, 
On the wing, the clamorous Wawa ; 
Thinking of the great war-parties. 
How they came to buy his arrows. 
Could not fight without his arrows. 
Ah, no more such noble warriors 
Could be found on earth as they were ! 
Now the men were all like women, 
Only used their tongues for weapons ! 

She was thinking of a hunter, 
From another tribe and country. 
Young and tall and very handsome. 
Who one morning, in the Spring-time 
Came to buy her father's arrows, 
Sat and rested in the wigwam. 
Lingered long about the doorway. 
Looking back as he departed. 
She had heard her father praise him. 
Praise his courage and his wisdom ; 






lOO THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Would he come again for arrows 
To the Falls of Minnehaha? 
On the mat her hands lay idle, 
And her eyes were very dreamy. 

Through their thoughts they heard a 
footstep. 
Heard a rusthng in the branches, 
And with glowing cheek and forehead, 
With the deer upon his shoulders. 
Suddenly from out the woodlands 
Hiawatha stood before them. 

Straight the ancient Arrow-maker 
Looked up gravely from his labor, 
Laid aside the unfinished arrow. 
Bade him enter at the doorway, 
Saying, as he rose to meet him, 
" Hiawatha, you are welcome ! " 

At the feet of Laughing Water 
Hiawatha laid his burden. 
Threw the red deer from his shoulders ; 
And the maiden looked up at him, 
Looked up from her mat of rushes, 
Said with gentle look and accent, 
" You are welcome, Hiawatha ! " 

Very spacious was the wigwam. 
Made of deer-skins dressed and whitened. 
With the Gods of the Dacotahs 



HIAWATHA'S WOOING 



lOI 



Drawn and painted on its curtains, 
And so tall the doorway, hardly 
Hiawatha stooped to enter, 
Hardly touched his eagle-feathers 
As he entered at the doorway. 

Then uprose the Laughing Water, 
From the ground fair Minnehaha, 
Laid aside her mat unfinished, 
Brought forth food and set before them. 
Water brought them from the brooklet. 
Gave them food in earthen vessels, 
Gave them drink in bowls of bass-wood. 
Listened while the guest was speaking. 
Listened while her father answered, 
But not once her lips she opened, 
Not a single word she uttered. 

Yes, as in a dream she listened 
To the words of Hiawatha, 
As he talked of old Nokomis, 
Who had nursed him in his childhood, 
As he told of his companions, 
Chibiabos, the musician. 
And the very strong man, Kwasind, 
And of happiness and plenty 
In the land of the Ojibways, 
In the pleasant land and peaceful. 

" After many years of warfare, 





I02 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 





Many years of strife and bloodshed, 
There is peace between the Ojibways 
And the tribe of the Daeotahs." 
Thus continued Hiawatha, 
And then added, speaking slowly, 

" That this peace may last forever, 
And our hands be clasped more closely, 
And our hearts be more united, 
Give me as my wife this maiden, 
Minnehaha, Laughing Water, 
Loveliest of Dacotah women ! " 

And the ancient Arrow-maker 
Paused a moment ere he answered. 
Smoked a little while in silence. 
Looked at Hiawatha proudly. 
Fondly looked at Laughing Water, 
And made answer very gravely : 

" Yes, if Minnehaha wishes ; 
Let your heart speak, Minnehaha ! " 

And the lovely Laughing Water 
Seemed more lovely as she stood there. 
Neither willing nor reluctant, 
As she went to Hiawatha, 
Softly took the seat beside him. 
While she said, and blushed to say it, 

" I will follow you, my husband ! " 
This was Hiawatha's wooing ! 



HIAWATHA'S WOOING 103 

Thus it was he won the daughter 
Of the aucient Arrow-maker, 
lu the land of the Dacotahs ! 

From the wigwam he departed, 
Leading with him Laughing Water ; 
Hand in hand they went together, 
Through the woodland and the meadow, 
Left the old man standing lonely 
At the doorway of his mgwam, 
Heard the Falls of Minnehaha 
CalHng to them from the distance, 
Crying to them from afar off, 

" Fare thee well, Minnehaha ! " 
And the ancient Arrow-maker 
Turned again unto his labor. 
Sat down by his sunny doorway, 
Mm^muring to himself, and saying : 

" Thus it is our daughters leave us. 
Those we love, and those who love us ! 
Just when they have learned to help us. 
When we are old and lean upon them, 
Comes a youth mth flaunting feathers. 
With his flute of reeds, a stranger 
Wanders piping through the village. 
Beckons to the fairest maiden, 
And she follows where he leads her. 
Leaving all things for the stranger ! " 




I04 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 




Pleasant was the journey homeward. 
Through interminable forests, 
Over meadow, over mountain, 
Over river, hill, and hollow. 
Short it seemed to Hiawatha, 
Though they journeyed very slowly, 
Though his pace he checked and slackened 
To the steps of Laughing Water. 

Over wide and rushing rivers 
In his arms he bore the maiden ; 
Light he thought her as a feather. 
As the plume upon his head-gear ; 
Cleared the tangled pathway for her, 
Bent aside the swaying branches. 
Made at night a lodge of branches. 
And a bed with boughs of hemlock. 
And a fire before the doorway 
With the dry cones of the pine-tree. 

All the travelling winds went with them. 
O'er the meadows, through the forest ; 
All the stars of night looked at them. 
Watched with sleepless eyes their slumber ; 
From his ambush in the oak-tree 
Peeped the squirrel, Adjidaumo, 
Watched with eager eyes the lovers ; 
And the rabbit, the Wabasso, 
Scampered from the path before them. 



HIAWATHA'S WOOING 



105 



Peeling, peeping from his burrow, 
Sat erect upon his haunches, 
Watched with curious eyes the lovers. 

Pleasant was the journey homeward ! 
All the birds sang loud and sweetly 
Songs of happiness and heart's-ease ; 
Sang the bluebird, the Owaissa, 
" Happy are you, Hiawatha, 
Having such a wife to love you ! " 
Sang the robin, the Opechee, 
" Happy are you, Laughing Water, 
Having such a noble husband ! " 

From the sky the sun benignant 
Looked upon them through the branches, 
Sa3dng to them, " my children, 
Love is sunshine, hate is shadow, 
Life is checkered shade and sunshine. 
Rule by love, Hiawatha ! " 

From the sky the moon looked at them, 
Filled the lodge with mystic splendors, 
Whispered to them, " my children, 
Day is restless, night is quiet, 
Man imperious, woman feeble ; 
Half is mine, although I follow ; 
Rule by patience. Laughing Water ! " 

Thus it was they journeyed homeward ; 
Thus it was that Hiawatha 




Io6 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

To the lodge of old Nokomis 

Brought the moonlight, starlight, fireHght, 

Brought the sunshine of his people, 

Minnehaha, Laughing Water, 

Handsomest of all the women 

In the land of the Dacotahs, 

In the land of handsome women. 





XI 



|)iatdatl)aV JlDcl>tiin0-5fca0t 



You shall hear how Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
How the handsome Yenadizze 
Danced at Hiawatha's wedding ; 
How the gentle Chibiabos, 
He the sweetest of mnsicians, 
Sano' his sonos of love and loneino- ; 
How lagoo, the great boaster, 
He the marvellous story-teller, 
Told his tales of strange adventure, 
That the feast might be more joyous, 
That the time might pass more gayly, 
And the guests be more contented. 






[08 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Sumptuous was the feast Nokomis 
Made at Hiawatha's wedding ; 
All the bowls were made of bass-wood, 
White and polished very smoothly, 
All the spoons of horn of bison. 
Black and polished very smoothly. 

She had sent through all the village 
Messengers with wands of willow, 
As a sign of invitation. 
As a token of the feasting ; 
And the wedding guests assembled. 
Clad in all their richest raiment, 
Robes of fur and belts of wampum, 
Splendid with their paint and plumage. 
Beautiful with beads and tassels. 

First they ate the sturgeon, Nahma, 
And the pike, the Maskenozha, 
Caught and cooked by old Nokomis ; 
Then on pemican they feasted, 
Pemican and buffalo marrow. 
Haunch of deer and hump of bison. 
Yellow cakes of the Mondamin, 
And the wild rice of the river. 

But the gracious Hiawatha, 
And the lovely Laughing Water, 
And the careful old Nokomis, 
Tasted not the food before them, 



HIAWATHA'S WEDDING-FEAST 



109 



Only waited on the others, 

Only served their guests in silence. 

And when all the guests had finished, 
Old Nokomis, brisk and busy, 
From an ample pouch of otter. 
Filled the red-stone pipes for smoking 
With tobacco from the South-land, 
Mixed with bark of the red willow. 
And with herbs and leaves of fragrance. 

Then she said, " Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
Dance for us your merry dances. 
Dance the Beggar's Dance to please us, 
That the feast may be more joyous, 
That the time may pass more gayly, 
And our guests be more contented ! " 

Then the handsome Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
He the idle Yenadizze, 
He the merry mischief-maker. 
Whom the people called the Storm-Fool, 
Rose among the guests assembled. 

Skilled was he in sports and pastimes, W 
In the merry dance of snow-shoes, ^ 

In the play of quoits and ball-play ; 
Skilled was he in games of hazard. 
In aU games of skill and hazard, 
Pugasaing, the Bowl and Counters, 
Kuntassoo, the Game of Plum-stones. 





no THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Though the warriors called him Faint-Heart, 

Called him coward, Shaugodaya, 

Idler, gambler, Yenadizze, 

Little heeded he their jesting, 

Little cared he for their insults. 

For the women and the maidens 

Loved the handsome Pau-Puk-Keewis. 

He was dressed in shirt of doeskin, 
White and soft, and fringed with ermine, 
All inwrought with beads of wampum ; 
He was dressed in deer-skin leggings. 
Fringed with hedgehog quills and ermine, 
And in moccasins of buck-skin. 
Thick with quills and beads embroidered. 
On his head were plumes of swan's down. 
On his heels were tails of foxes, 
In one hand a fan of feathers, 
And a pipe was in the other. 

Barred with streaks of red and yellow, 
Streaks of blue and bright vermilion, 
Shone the face of Pau-Puk-Keewis. 
From his forehead fell his tresses. 
Smooth, and parted like a woman's, 
Shining bright with oil, and plaited. 
Hung with braids of scented grasses. 
As among the guests assembled, 
To the sound of flutes and singing, 



HTAWATHA'S WEDDING-FEAST III 

To the sound of drums and voices, 
Rose the handsome Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
And began his mystic dances. 

First he danced a solemn measure. 
Very slow in step and gesture, 
In and out among the pine-trees, 
Through the shadows and the sunshine, 
Treading softly like a panther. 
Then more swiftly and still swifter. 
Whirling, spinning round in circles, 
Leaping o'er the guests assembled. 
Eddying round and round the wigwam. 
Till the leaves went whirling with him. 
Till the dust and wind together 
Swept in eddies round about him. 

Then along the sandy margin 
Of the lake, the Big-Sea-Water, 
On he sped with frenzied gestures, 
Stamped upon the sand, and tossed it 
Wildly in the air around him ; 
Till the wind became a whirlwind. 
Till the sand was blown and sifted 
Like great snowdrifts o'er the landscape. 
Heaping all the shores with Sand Dunes, 
Sand Hills of the Nagow Wudjoo ! 

Thus the merry Pau-Puk-Keewis 
Danced his Beggar's Dance to please them, 






112 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

And, returning, sat down laughing 
There among the guests assembled, 
Sat and fanned himself serenely 
With his fan of turkey-feathers. 

Then they said to Chibiabos, 
To the friend of Hiawatha, 
To the sweetest of all singers. 
To the best of all musicians, 
" Sing to us, Chibiabos ! 
Songs of love and songs of longing. 
That the feast may be more joyous. 
That the time may pass more gayly, 
And our guests be more contented ! " 

And the gentle Chibiabos 
Sang in accents sweet and tender, 
Sang in tones of deep emotion, 
Songs of love and songs of longing ; 
Looking still at Hiawatha, 
Looking at fair Laughing Water, 
Sang he softly, sang in this wise : 

" Onaway ! Awake, beloved ! 
Thou the wild-flower of the forest ! 
Thou the wild-bird of the prairie ! 
Thou with eyes so soft and fawn-like ! 

" If thou only lookest at me, 
I am happy, I am happy. 
As the lilies of the prairie. 
When they feel the dew upon them ! 



HIAWATHA'S WEDDING-FEAST II3 

" Sweet thy breath is as the fragrance 
Of the wild-flowers in the morning, 
As their fragrance is at evening, 
In the Moon when leaves are falling. 

" Does not all the blood within me 
Leap to meet thee, leap to meet thee. 
As the springs to meet the sunshine. 
In the Moon when nights are brightest ? 

" Onaway ! my heart sings to thee, 
Sings with joy when thou art near me. 
As the sighing, singing branches 
In the pleasant Moon of Strawberries ! 

" "When thou art not pleased, beloved, 
Then my heart is sad and darkened, 
As the shining river darkens 
When the clouds drop shadows on it ! 

'' When thou smilest, my beloved, 
Then my troubled heart is brightened, 
As in sunshine gleam the ripples 
That the cold wind makes in rivers. 

" Smiles the earth, and smile the waters, 
Smile the cloudless skies above us, 
But I lose the way of smiling 
When thou art no longer near me ! 

" I myself, myself ! behold me ! 
Blood of my beating heart, behold me ! 
Oh awake, awake, beloved ! 
Onaway ! awake, beloved ! " 




114 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 





Thus the gentle Chibiabos 
Sang his song of love and longing ; 
And lagoo, the great boaster. 
He the marvellous story-teller, 
He the friend of old Nokomis, 
Jealous of the sweet musician, 
Jealous of the applause they gave liim. 
Saw in all the eyes around him. 
Saw in all their looks and gestures, 
That the wedding guests assembled 
Longed to hear his pleasant stories, 
His immeasurable falsehoods. 

Very boastful was lagoo ; 
Never heard he an adventure 
But himself had met a greater ; 
Never any deed of daring 
But himself had done a bolder ; 
Never any marvellous story 
But himself could tell a stranger. 

Would you listen to his boasting, 
Would you only give him credence. 
No one ever shot an arrow 
Half so far and high as he had ; 
Ever caught so many fishes. 
Ever killed so many reindeer, 
Ever trapped so many beaver ! 

None could run so fast as he could, 



HIAWATHA'S WEDDING-FEAST 



115 



None could dive so deep as he could, 
None could swim so far as he could ; 
None had made so many journeys, 
None had seen so many wonders, 
As this wonderful lagoo. 
As this marvellous story-teller ! 

Thus his name became a by-word 
And a jest among the people ; 
And whene'er a boastful hunter 
Praised his own address too highly. 
Or a warrior, home returning. 
Talked too much of his achievements, 
All his hearers cried, " lagoo ! 
Here 's lagoo come among us ! " 

He it was who carved the cradle 
Of the little Hiawatha, 
Carved its framework out of linden. 
Bound it strong with reindeer sinews ; 
He it was who taught him later 
How to make his bows and arrows. 
How to make the bows of ash-tree, 
And the arrows of the oak-tree. 
So among the guests assembled 
At my Hiawatha's wedding 
Sat lagoo, old and ugly, 
Sat the marvellous story-teller. 

And they said, " good lagoo, 





ii6 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 



Tell us now a tale of wonder. 
Tell US of some strange adventure, 
That the feast may be more joyous, 
That the time may pass more gayly. 
And our guests be more contented ! " 
And lagoo answered straightway, 
" You shall hear a tale of wonder. 
You shall hear the strange adventures 
Of Osseo, the Magician, 
From the Evening Star descended." 





xn 



€fte ^on of tfje aEt^emng M>tat 



Can it be the sun descending 
O'er the level plain of water ? 
Or the Red Swan floating, flying, 
Wounded by the magic arrow. 
Staining all the waves with crimson. 



ii8 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 




With the crimson of its life-blood, 
Filling all the air with splendor, 
With the splendor of its plumage ? 

Yes ; it is the sun descending, 
Sinking down into the water ; 
All the sky is stained with purple, 
All the water flushed with crimson ! 
No ; it is the Red Swan floating. 
Diving down beneath the water ; 
To the sky its wings are lifted. 
With its blood the waves are reddened ! 

Over it the Star of Evening 
Melts and trembles through the purple, 
Hangs suspended in the twilight. 
No ; it is a bead of wampum 
On the robes of the Great Spirit 
As he passes through the twilight, 
Walks in silence through the heavens. 

This with joy beheld lagoo 
And he said in haste : " Behold it ! 
See the sacred Star of Evening ! 
You shall hear a tale of wonder, 
Hear the story of Osseo, 
Son of the Evening Star, Osseo ! 

" Once, in days no more remembered, 
Ages nearer the beginning, 
When the heavens were closer to us, 



THE SON OF THE EVENING STAR 1 19 

And the Gods were more familiar, 
In the North-land lived a hunter, 
With ten young and comely daughters, 
Tall and lithe as wands of willow ; 
Only Oweenee, the youngest, 
She the wilful and the wayward. 
She the silent, dreamy maiden. 
Was the fairest of the sisters. 

" All these women married warriors. 
Married brave and haughty husbands ; 
Only Oweenee, the youngest. 
Laughed and flouted all her lovers, 
All her young and handsome suitors, 
And then married old Osseo, 
Old Osseo, poor and ugly. 
Broken with age and weak with coughing. 
Always coughing like a squirrel. 

" Ah, but beautiful within him 
Was the spirit of Osseo, 
From the Evening Star descended. 
Star of Evening, Star of Woman, 
Star of tenderness and passion ! 
All its fire was in his bosom, 
All its beauty in his spirit. 
All its mystery in his being. 
All its splendor in his language ! 

" And her lovers, the rejected. 



g$^) 





I20 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Handsome men with belts of wampum, 
Handsome men with paint and feathers, 
Pointed at her in derision, 
Followed her with jest and laughter. 
But she said : ' I care not for you, 
Care not for your belts of wampum. 
Care not for your paint and feathers. 
Care not for your jests and laughter ; 
I am happy with Osseo ! ' 

" Once to some great feast invited. 
Through the damp and dusk of evening, 
Walked together the ten sisters. 
Walked together with their husbands ; 
Slowly followed old Osseo, 
With fair Oweenee beside him ; 
All the others chatted gayly, 
These two only walked in silence. 

" At the western sky Osseo 
Gazed intent, as if imploring, 
Often stopped and gazed imploring 
At the trembling Star of Evening, 
At the tender Star of Woman ; 
And they heard him murmur softly, 

' Ah, showain nemeshin, Nosa ! 
Pity, pity me, my father ! ' 

" ' Listen ! ' said the eldest sister, 

' He is praying to his father ! 
What a pity that the old man 



THE SON OF THE EVENING STAR 121 

Does not stumble in the pathway, 
Does not break his neck by falling ! ' 
And they laughed till all the forest 
Rang with their unseemly laughter. 

" On their pathway through the woodland 
Lay an oak, by storms uprooted. 
Lay the great trunk of an oak-tree, 
Buried half in leaves and mosses. 
Mouldering, crumbling, huge and holloWc 
And Osseo, when he saw it. 
Gave a shout, a cry of anguish. 
Leaped into its yawning cavern, 
At one end went in an old man, 
Wasted, wrinkled, old, and ugly ; 
From the other came a young man, 
Tall and straight and strong and handsome. 

" Thus Osseo was transfigured, 
Thus restored to youth and beauty; 
But, alas for good Osseo, 
And for Oweenee, the faithful ! 
Strangely, too, was she transfigured. 
Changed into a weak old woman. 
With a staff she tottered onward. 
Wasted, wrinkled, old, and ugly ! 
And the sisters and their husbands 
Laughed until the echoing forest 
Rang with their unseemly laughter. 

" But Osseo turned not from her. 




122 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 




Walked with slower step beside her, 
Took her hand, as brown and withered 
As an oak-leaf is in Winter, 
Called her sweetheart, Nenemoosha, 
Soothed her with soft words of kindness. 
Till they reached the lodge of feasting. 
Till they sat down in the wigwam. 
Sacred to the Star of Evening, 
To the tender Star of Woman. 

'^ Wrapt in visions, lost in dreaming. 
At the banquet sat Osseo ; 
All were merry, all were happy. 
All were joyous but Osseo. 
Neither food nor drink he tasted. 
Neither did he speak nor listen. 
But as one bewildered sat he, 
Looking dreamily and sadly, 
First at Oweenee, then upward 
At the gleaming sky above them. 

" Then a voice was heard, a whisper. 
Coming from the starry distance, 
Coming from the empty vastness. 
Low, and musical, and tender ; 
And the voice said : ^ Osseo ! 
my son, my best beloved ! 
Broken are the spells that bound you, 
All the charms of the magician, 



THE SON OF THE EVENING STAR 1 23 

All the magic powers of evil ; 
Come to me ; ascend, Osseo ! 

" ' Taste the food that stands before you : 
It is blessed and enchanted, 
It has magic virtues in it, 
It will change you to a spirit. 
All your bowls and aU your kettles 
Shall be wood and clay no longer ; 
But the bowls be changed to wampum, 
And the kettles shall be silver ; 
They shall shine like shells of scarlet. 
Like the fire shall gleam and glimmer. 

" ' And the women shall no longer 
Bear the dreary doom of labor, 
But be changed to birds, and glisten 
With the beauty of the starlight. 
Painted with the dusky splendors 
Of the skies and clouds of evening ! ' 

" What Osseo heard as whispers, 
What as words he comprehended. 
Was but music to the others, 
Music as of birds afar off, 
Of the whippoorwill afar off. 
Of the lonely Wawonaissa 
Singing in the darksome forest. 

" Then the lodge began to ti*emble, 
Straight began to shake and tremble. 







24 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

And they felt it rising, rising, 
Slowly through the air ascending, 
From the darkness of the tree-tops 
Forth into the dewy starlight, 
TiU it passed the topmost branches ; 
And behold ! the wooden dishes 
All were changed to shells of scarlet ! 
And behold ! the earthen kettles 
All were changed to bowls of silver ! 
And the roof-poles of the wigwam 
Were as ghttering rods of silver, 
And the roof of bark upon them 
As the shining shards of beetles. 

" Then Osseo gazed around him. 
And he saw the nine fair sisters. 
All the sisters and their husbands. 
Changed to birds of various plumage. 
Some were jays and some were magpies. 
Others thrushes, others blackbirds ; 
And they hopped, and sang, and twittered, 
Perked and fluttered all their feathers. 
Strutted in their shining plumage, 
And their tails like fans unfolded. 

" Only Oweenee, the youngest. 
Was not changed, but sat in silence. 
Wasted, wrinkled, old, and ugly. 
Looking sadly at the others ; 



THE SON OF THE EVENING STAR 125 

Till Osseo, gazing upward. 
Gave another cry of anguish. 
Such a cry as he had uttered 
By the oak-tree in the forest. 

" Then returned her youth and beauty. 
And her soiled and tattered garments 
Were transformed to robes of ermine, 
And her staff became a feather, 
Yes, a shining silver feather ! 

" And again the wigwam trembled. 
Swayed and rushed through airy currents, 
Through transparent cloud and vapor, 
And amid celestial splendors 
On the Evening Star alighted. 
As a snow-flake falls on snow-flake, 
As a leaf drops on a river. 
As the thistle-down on water. 

" Forth with cheerful words of welcome 
Came the father of Osseo, 
He with radiant locks of silver, 
He with eyes serene and tender. 
And he said : ^ My son, Osseo, 
Hang the cage of birds you bring there, 
Hang the cage with rods of silver. 
And the birds with glistening feathers, 
At the doorway of my wigwam.' 

" At the door he hung the bii-d-cage. 





126 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 




And they entered in and gladly 

Listened to Osseo's father, 

Ruler of the Star of Evening, 

As he said : ' my Osseo ! 

I have had compassion on you, 

Given you back your youth and beauty, 

Into birds of various plumage 

Changed your sisters and their husbands ; 

Changed them thus because they mocked 

you 
In the figure of the old man, 
In that aspect sad and wrinkled, 
Could not see your heart of passion. 
Could not see your youth immortal ; 
Only Oweenee, the faithful. 
Saw your naked heart and loved you. 

" ' In the lodge that glimmers yonder. 
In the little star that twinkles 
Through the vapors, on the left hand. 
Lives the envious Evil Spirit, 
The Wabeno, the magician. 
Who transformed you to an old man. 
Take heed lest his beams fall on y^ , 
For the rays he darts around hr 
Are the power of his enchant jnt. 
Are the arrows that he uses.' 

" Many years, in peace and quiet, 



THE SON OF THE EVENING STAR 12/ 

On the peaceful Star of Evening 
Dwelt Osseo with his father ; 
Many years, in song and flutter, 
At the doorway of the wigwam, 
Hung the cage •with rods of silver, 
And fair Oweenee, the faithful. 
Bore a son unto Osseo, 
With the beauty of his mother. 
With the courage of his father. 

" And the boy grew up and prospered, 
And Osseo, to delight him. 
Made him little bows and arrows. 
Opened the great cage of silver. 
And let loose his aunts and uncles. 
All those birds with glossy feathers. 
For his Httle son to shoot at. 

"Round and round they wheeled and 
darted, 
Filled the Evening Star with music, 
With their songs of joy and freedom ; 
Filled the Evening Star with splendor. 
With the fluttering of their plumage ; 
Till the boy, the little hunter. 
Bent his bow and shot an arrow. 
Shot a swift and fatal arrow, 
And a bird, with shining feathers. 
At his feet fell wounded sorely. 







128 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

" But, wondrous transformation ! 
'T was no bird he saw before him, 
'T was a beautiful young woman, 
With the arrow in her bosom ! 

" When her blood fell on the planet, 
On the sacred Star of Evening, 
Broken was the spell of magic. 
Powerless was the strange enchantment, 
And the youth, the fearless bowman. 
Suddenly felt himself descending. 
Held by unseen hands, but sinking 
Downward through the empty spaces. 
Downward through the clouds and vapors. 
Till he rested on an island. 
On an island, green and grassy. 
Yonder in the Big-Sea- Water. 

" After him he saw descending 
All the birds with shining feathers. 
Fluttering, falling, wafted downward. 
Like the painted leaves of Autumn ; 
And the lodge with poles of silver. 
With its roof like wings of beetles, 
Like the shining shards of beetles. 
By the winds of heaven uplifted, 
Slowly sank upon the island. 
Bringing back the good Osseo, 
Bringing Oweenee, the faithful. 



THE SON OF THE EVENING STAR 1 29 

" Then the birds, again transfigured, 
Reassumed the shape of mortals, 
Took their shape, but not their stature ; 
They remained as Little People, 
Like the pygmies, the Puk-Wudjies, 
And on pleasant nights of Summer, 
When the Evening Star was shining. 
Hand in hand they danced together 
On the island's craggy headlands, 
On the sand-beach low and level. 

^^ Still their glittering lodge is seen there. 
On the tranquil Summer evenings. 
And upon the shore the fisher 
Sometimes hears their happy voices. 
Sees them dancing in the starlight ! " 

When the story was completed. 
When the wondrous tale was ended. 
Looking round upon his listeners. 
Solemnly lagoo added : 
" There are great men, I have known such, 
Whom their people understand not. 
Whom they even make a jest of. 
Scoff and jeer at in derision. 
From the story of Osseo 
Let us learn the fate of jesters ! " 

All the wedding guests dehghted 
Listened to the marvellous story, 





I30 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Listened laughing and applauding, 
And they whispered to each other : 
" Does he mean himself, I wonder ? 
And are we the aunts and uncles ? " 

Then again sang Chibiabos, 
Sang a song of love and longing, 
In those accents sweet and tender. 
In those tones of pensive sadness. 
Sang a maiden's lamentation 
For her lover, her Algonquin. 

" When I think of my beloved, 
Ah me ! think of my beloved, 
When my heart is thinking of him, 
my sweetheart, my Algonquin ! 

" Ah me ! when I parted from him. 
Round my neck he hung the wampum, 
As a pledge, the snow-white wampum, 
my sweetheart, my Algonquin ! 

" I will go with you, he whispered. 
Ah me ! to your native country ; 
Let me go with you, he whispered, 
my sweetheart, my Algonquin ! 

" Far away, away, I answered. 
Very far away, I answered. 
Ah me ! is my native country, 
my sweetheart, my Algonquin ! 

" When I looked back to behold him. 



THE SON OF THE EVENING STAR 13 1 



Where we parted, to behold him, 

After me he still was gazing, 

my sweetheart, my Algonquin ! 

" By the tree he still was standing, 
By the fallen tree was standing, 
That had dropped into the water, 
my sweetheart, my Algonquin ! 

" When I think of my beloved. 
Ah me ! think of my beloved. 
When my heart is thinking of him, 
my sweetheart, my Algonquin ! " 

Such was Hiawatha's Wedding, 
Such the dance of Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
Such the story of lagoo. 
Such the songs of Chibiabos ; 
Thus the wedding banquet ended. 
And the wedding guests departed. 
Leaving Hiawatha happy 
With the night and Minnehaha. 






XIII 



25Ie^^tng tlje Conifidti^ 



Sing, Song of Hiawatha, 

Of the happy days that followed, 

In the land of the Ojibways, 

In the pleasant land and peaceful ! 

Sing the mysteries of Mondamin, 

Sing the Blessing of the Cornfields ! 

Buried was the bloody hatchet, 
Buried was the dreadful war-club, 



BLESSING THE CORNFIELDS 



33 



Buried were all warlike weapons, 
And the war-cry was forgotten. 
There was peace among the nations ; 
Unmolested roved the hunters, 
Built the birch canoe for sailing, 
Caught the fish in lake and river. 
Shot the deer and trapped the beaver ; 
Unmolested worked the women. 
Made their sugar from the maple. 
Gathered wild rice in the meadows. 
Dressed the skins of deer and beaver. 

All around the happy village 
Stood the maize-fields, green and shining, 
Waved the green plumes of Mondamin, 
Waved his soft and sunny tresses, 
FilHng all the land with plenty. 
'T was the women who in Spring-time 
Planted the broad fields and fruitful, 
Buried in the earth Mondamin ; 
'T was the women who in Autumn 
Stripped the yellow husks of harvest, 
Stripped the garments from Mondamin, ^ 
Even as Hiawatha taught them. 

Once, when all the maize was planted, 
Hiawatha, wise and thoughtful, 
Spake and said to Minnehaha, 
To his wife, the Laughing Water : 





134 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 






" You shall bless to-night the cornfields, 
Draw a magic circle round them, 
To protect them from destruction, 
Blast of mildew, blight of insect, 
Wagemin, the thief of cornfields, 
Paimosaid, who steals the maize-ear ! 

" In the night, when all is silence. 
In the night, when all is darkness. 
When the Spirit of Sleep, Nepahwin, 
Shuts the doors of all the wigwams, 
So that not an ear can hear you, 
So that not an eye can see you. 
Rise up from your bed in silence. 
Lay aside your garments wholly. 
Walk around the fields you planted. 
Round the borders of the cornfields. 
Covered by your tresses only, 
Robed with darkness as a garment. 

" Thus the fields shall be more fruitful, 
And the passing of your footsteps 
Draw a magic circle round them, 
So that neither blight nor mildew. 
Neither burrowing worm nor insect. 
Shall pass o'er the magic circle ; 
Not the dragon-fly, Kwo-ne-she, 
Nor the spider, Subbekashe, 
Nor the grasshopper, Pah-puk-keena, 



BLESSING THE CORNFIELDS 135 

Nor the mighty caterpillar, 
Way-muk-kwana, with the bear-skin, 
King of all the caterpillars ! " 

On the tree-tops near the cornfields 
Sat the hungry crows and ravens, 
Kahgahgee, the King of Ravens, 
With his band of black marauders. 
And they laughed at Hiawatha, 
Till the tree-tops shook with laughter, 
With their melancholy laughter. 
At the words of Hiawatha. 
" Hear him ! " said they ; " hear the Wise 
Man, 
Hear the plots of Hiawatha ! " 

When the noiseless night descended 
Broad and dark o'er field and forest. 
When the mournful Wawonaissa, 
Sorrowing sang among the hemlocks, 
And the Spirit of Sleep, Nepahwin, 
Shut the doors of all the wigwams, 
From her bed rose Laughing Water, 
Laid aside her garments wholly, 
And with darkness clothed and guarded, 
Unashamed and unaffrighted. 
Walked securely round the cornfields, 
Drew the sacred, magic circle 
Of her footprints round the cornfields. 





136 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 





No one but the Midnight only 
Saw her beauty in the darkness, 
No one but the Wawonaissa 
Heard the panting of her bosom ; 
Guskewau, the darkness, wrapped her 
Closely in his sacred mantle, 
So that none might see her beauty, 
So that none might boast, " I saw her ! " 

On the morrow, as the day dawned, 
Kahgahgee, the King of Ravens, 
Gathered all his black marauders. 
Crows and blackbirds, jays and ravens. 
Clamorous on the dusky tree-tops, 
And descended, fast and fearless. 
On the fields of Hiawatha, 
On the grave of the Mondamin. 

" We will drag Mondamin," said they, 
" From the grave where he is buried. 
Spite of all the magic circles 
Laughing Water draws around it, 
Spite of all the sacred footprints 
Minnehaha stamps upon it ! " 

But the wary Hiawatha, 
Ever thoughtful, careful, watchful, 
Had o'erheard the scornful laughter. 
When they mocked him from the tree-tops. 
" Kaw ! " he said, " my friends the ravens 1 



BLESSING THE CORNFIELDS 



137 



Kahgahgee, my King of Ravens ! 

I will teach you all a lesson 

That shall not be soon forgotten ! " 

He had risen before the daybreak, 
He had spread o'er all the cornfields 
Snares to catch the black marauders, 
And was lying now in ambush 
In the neighboring grove of pine-trees, 
Waiting for the crows and blackbirds, 
Waiting for the jays and ravens. 

Soon they came with caw and clamor, 
Rush of wings and cry of voices. 
To their work of devastation, 
Settling down upon the cornfields, , 

Delving deep with beak and talon, i| 

For the body of Mondamin. ' 

And with all their craft and cunning, 
All their skill in wiles of warfare. 
They perceived no danger near them, 
Till their claws became entangled. 
Till they found themselves imprisoned 
In the snares of Hiawatha. 

From his place of ambush came he, 
Striding terrible among them. 
And so awful was his aspect 
That the bravest quailed with terror. 
Without mercy he destroyed them 





38 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 



Right and left, by tens and twenties. 
And their wretched, lifeless bodies 
Hung aloft on poles for scarecrows 
Round the consecrated cornfields, 
As a signal of his vengeance, 
As a warning to marauders. 

Only Kahgahgee, the leader, 
Kahgahgee, the King of Ravens, 
He alone was spared among them 
As a hostage for his people. 
With his prisoner-string he bound him, 
Led him captive to his wigwam. 
Tied him fast with cords of elm-bark 
To the ridge-pole of his wigwam. 

" Kahgahgee, my raven ! " said he, 
'-' You the leader of the robbers, 
You the plotter of this mischief, 
The contriver of this outrage, 
I will keep you, I will hold you, 
As a hostage for your people. 
As a pledge of good behavior ! " 

And he left him, grim and sulky. 
Sitting in the morning sunshine 
On the summit of the wigwam. 
Croaking fiercely his displeasure, 
Flapping his great sable pinions, 
Vainly struggling for his freedom. 
Vainly calling on his people ! 



BLESSING THE CORNFIELDS 



139 



Summer passed, and Shawondasee 
Breathed his sighs o'er all the landscape 
From the South-land sent his ardors. 
Wafted kisses warm and tender ; 
And the maize-field grew and ripened, 
Till it stood in all the splendor 
Of its garments green and yellow, 
Of its tassels and its plumage. 
And the maize-ears full and shining 
Gleamed from bursting sheaths of verdure. 

Then Nokomis, the old woman. 
Spake, and said to Minnehaha : 
'^ 'T is the Moon when leaves are falling ; 
All the wild rice has been gathered, 
And the maize is ripe and ready ; 
Let us gather in the harvest. 
Let us wrestle with Mondamin, 
Strip him of his plumes and tassels, 
Of his garments green and yellow ! " 

And the merry Laughing Water 
Went rejoicing from the wigwam. 
With Nokomis, old and wrinkled. 
And they called the women round them, 
Called the young men and the maidens 
To the harvest of the cornfields. 
To the husking of the maize-ear. 

On the border of the forest. 
Underneath the fragrant pine-trees, 





I40 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 





Sat the old men and the warriors 
Smoking in the pleasant shadow. 
In uninterrupted silence 
Looked they at the gamesome labor 
Of the young men and the women ; 
Listened to their noisy talking, 
To their laughter and their singing. 
Heard them chattering like the magpies, 
Heard them laughing like the blue-jays. 
Heard them singing like the robins. 
And whene'er some lucky maiden 
Found a red ear in the husking, 
Found a maize-ear red as blood is, 
" Nushka ! " cried they all together, 
" Nushka ! you shall have a sweetheart. 

You shall have a handsome husband ! " 
" Ugh ! " the old men all responded 
From their seats beneath the pine-trees. 

And whene'er a youth or maiden 
Found a crooked ear in husking, 
Found a maize-ear in the husking 
Blighted, mildewed, or misshapen. 
Then they laughed and sang together. 
Crept and limped about the cornfields. 
Mimicked in their gait and gestures 
Some old man, bent almost double. 
Singing singly or together : 



BLESSING THE CORNFIELDS 141 

" Wagemin, the thief of cornfields ! 
Paimosaid, who steals the maize-ear ! " 

Till the cornfields rang with laughter, 
Till from Hiawatha's wigwam 
KahgahgeCj the King of Ravens, 
Screamed and quivered in his anger, 
And from all the neighboring tree-tops 
Cawed and croaked the black marauders. 

" Ugh ! " the old men all responded, 
From their seats beneath the pine-trees ! 



d 





-fea^^ 



XIV 



^ittntt^Wtttmts 




In those days said Hiawatha^ 
^^ Lo ! how aU things fade and perish ! 
From the memory of the old men 
Pass away the great traditions. 
The achievements of the warriors, 
The adventures of the hunters, 
AU the wisdom of the Medas, 
All the craft of the Wabenos, 
All the marvellous dreams and visions 
Of the Jossakeeds, the Prophets ! 

" Great men die and are forgotten, 
Wise men speak ; their words of wisdom 



PICTURE- WRITING 



143 



Perish in the ears that hear them, 
Do not reach the generations 
That, as yet unborn, are waiting 
In the great, mysterious darkness 
Of the speechless days that shall be ! 

" On the grave-posts of our fathers 
Are no signs, no figures painted ; 
Who are in those graves we know not, 
Only know they are our fathers. 
Of what kith they are and kindred, 
From what old, ancestral Totem, 
Be it Eagle, Bear, or Beaver, 
They descended, this we know not, 
Only know they are our fathers. 

" Face to face we speak together, 
But we cannot speak when absent. 
Cannot send our voices from us 
To the friends that dwell afar ofP ; 
Cannot send a secret message. 
But the bearer learns our secret, 
May pervert it, may betray it. 
May reveal it unto others." 

Thus said Hiawatha, walking 
In the solitary forest. 
Pondering, musing in the forest, 
On the welfare of his people. 

From his pouch he took his colors. 






144 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Took his paints of different colors, 
On the smooth bark of a birch-tree 
Painted many shapes and figures, 
Wonderful and mystic figures, 
And each figure had a meaning, 
Each some word or thought suggested. 

Gitche Manito the Mighty, 
He, the Master of Life, was painted 
As an Qg^j with points projecting 
To the four winds of the heavens. 
Everywhere is the Great Spirit, 
Was the meaning of this symbol. 

Mitche Manito the Mighty, 
He the dreadful Spirit of Evil, 
As a serpent was depicted, 
As Kenabeek, the great serpent. 
Very crafty, very cunning, 
Is the creeping Spirit of Evil, 
Was the meaning of this symbol. 

Life and Death he drew as circles, 
Life was white, but Death was darkened ; 
Sun and moon and stars he painted, 
Man and beast, and fish and reptile. 
Forests, mountains, lakes, and rivers. 

For the earth he drew a straight line. 
For the sky a bow above it ; 
White the space between for daytime. 



PICTURE-WRITING 1 45 

Filled with little stars for night-time ; 
On the left a point for sunrise, 
On the right a point for sunset. 
On the top a point for noontide, 
And for rain and cloudy weather 
Waving lines descending from it. 

Footprints pointing towards a wigwam 
Were a sign of invitation, 
Were a sign of guests assembling ; 
Bloody hands with palms uplifted 
Were a symbol of destruction. 
Were a hostile sign and symbol. 

All these things did Hiawatha 
Show unto his wondering people. 
And interpreted their meaning, 
And he said : " Behold, your grave-posts 
Have no mark, no sign, nor symbol. 
Go and paint them all with figures ; 
Each one with its household symbol. 
With its own ancestral Totem ; 
So that those who follow after 
May distinguish them and know them." 

And they painted on the grave-posts 
On the graves yet unf orgotten. 
Each his own ancestral Totem, 
Each the symbol of his household ; 
Figures of the Bear and Reindeer, 





146 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Of the Turtle, Crane, and Beaver, 
Each inverted as a token 
That the owner was departed, 
That the chief who bore the symbol 
Lay beneath in dust and ashes. 

And the Jossakeeds, the Prophets, 
The Wabenos, the Magicians, 
And the Medicine-men, the Medas, 
Painted upon bark and deer-skin 
Figures for the songs they chanted, 
For each song a separate symbol, 
Figures mystical and awful, 
Figures strange and brightly colored ; 
And each figure had its meaning. 
Each some magic song suggested. 

The Great Spirit, the Creator, 
Flashing light through all the heaven ; 
The Great Serpent, the Kenabeek, 
With his bloody crest erected. 
Creeping, looking into heaven ; 
In the sky the sun, that listens, 
And the moon eclipsed and dying ; 
Owl and eagle, crane and hen-hawk, 
And the cormorant, bird of magic ; 
Headless men, that walk the heavens. 
Bodies lying pierced with arrows, 
Bloody hands of death uplifted. 



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PICTURE- WRl TING 



'47 



Flags on graves, and great war-captains 
Grasping both the earth and heaven ! 

Such as these the shapes they painted 
On the birch-bark and the deer-skin ; 
Songs of war and songs of hunting, 
Songs of medicine and of magic, 
All were written in these figures. 
For each figure had its meaning. 
Each its separate song recorded. 

Nor forgotten was the Love-Song, 
The most subtle of all medicines. 
The most potent spell of magic. 
Dangerous more than war or hunting ! 
Thus the Love-Song was recorded, 
Symbol and interpretation. 

First a human figure standing. 
Painted in the brightest scarlet ; 
'T is the lover, the musician, 
And the meaning is, " My painting 
Makes me powerful over others." 

Then the figure seated, singing. 
Playing on a drum of magic. 
And the interpretation, " Listen ! 
'T is my voice you hear, my singing ! " 

Then the same red figure seated 
In the shelter of a wigwam. 
And the meaning of the symbol, 






148 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

" I will come and sit beside you 
In the mystery of my passion ! " 

Then two figures, man and woman. 
Standing hand in hand together 
With their hands so clasped together 
That they seemed in one united, 
And the words thus represented 
Are, "I see your heart within you, 
And your cheeks are red with blushes ! " 

Next the maiden on an island. 
In the centre of an island ; 
And the song this shape suggested 
Was, " Though you were at a distance. 
Were upon some far-off island. 
Such the spell I cast upon you, 
Such the magic power of passion, 
I could straightway draw you to me ! " 

Then the figure of the maiden 
Sleeping, and the lover near her. 
Whispering to her in her slumbers. 
Saying, " Though you were far from me 
In the land of Sleep and Silence, 
Still the voice of love would reach you ! " 

And the last of all the figures 
Was a heart within a circle. 
Drawn within a magic circle ; 
And the image had this meaning : 



PICTURE- WRITING 



149 



" Naked lies your heart before me. 
To your naked heart I whisper ! " 

Thus it was that Hiawatha, 
In his wisdom, taught the people 
All the mysteries of painting, 
All the art of Picture-Writing, 
On the smooth bark of the birch-tree, 
On the white skin of the reindeer. 
On the grave-posts of the village. 




-1 





XV 



ipiatdatfjaV ftamentation 



In those days the Evil Spirits, 
All the Manitos of mischief, 
Fearing Hiawatha's wisdom, 
And his love for Chibiabos, 
Jealous of their faithful friendship. 
And their noble words and actions, 
Made at length a league against them, 
To molest them and destroy them. 

Hiawatha, wise and wary, 
Often said to Chibiabos, 



HIAWATHA'S LAMENTATION 



151 



" my brother ! do not leave me. 
Lest the Evil Spirits harm you ! " 
Chibiabos, young and heedless. 
Laughing shook his coal-black tresses, 
Answered ever sweet and childlike, 

" Do not fear for me, brother ! 
Harm and evil come not near me ! " 
Once when Peboan, the Winter, 
Roofed with ice the Big-Sea-Water, 
When the snow-flakes, whirling downward, 
Hissed among the withered oak-leaves. 
Changed the pine-trees into wigwams. 
Covered all the earth with silence, — 
Armed with arrows, shod with snow-shoes. 
Heeding not his brother's warning. 
Fearing not the Evil Spirits, 
Forth to hunt the deer with antlers 
All alone went Chibiabos. 
Right across the Big-Sea-Water 
Sprang with speed the deer before him. 
With the wind and snow he followed. 
O'er the treacherous ice he followed. 
Wild with all the fierce commotion 
And the rapture of the hunting. 
But beneath, the Evil Spirits 
Lay in ambush, waiting for him, 
Broke the treacherous ice beneath him, 






152 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Dragged him downward to the bottom, 
Buried in the sand his body. 
Unktahee, the god of water, 
r He the god of the Daeotahs, 
Drowned him in the deep abysses 
Of the lake of Gitche Gumee. 

From the headlands Hiawatha 
Sent forth such a wail of anguish, 
Such a fearful lamentation, 
That the bison paused to listen, 
And the wolves howled from the prairies, 
And the thunder in the distance 
Starting answered " Baim-wawa ! " 

Then his face with black he painted. 
With his robe his head he covered. 
In his wigwam sat lamenting. 
Seven long weeks he sat lamenting, 
Uttering still this moan of sorrow : — 

" He is dead, the sweet musician ! 
He the sweetest of all singers ! 
He has gone from us forever, 
He has moved a little nearer 
To the Master of all music. 
To the Master of all singing ! 
my brother, Chibiabos ! " 

And the melancholy fir-trees 
Waved their dark green fans above him, 



HIAWATHA'S LAMENTATION 153 

Waved their purple cones above him, 
Sighing with him to console him, 
Mingling with his lamentation 
Their complaining, their lamenting. 

Came the Spring, and all the forest 
Looked in vain for Chibiabos ; 
Sighed the rivulet, Sebowisha, 
Sighed the rushes in the meadow. 

From the tree-tops sang the bluebird. 
Sang the bluebird, the Owaissa, 
" Chibiabos ! Chibiabos ! 
He is dead, the sweet musician ! " 

From the wigwam sang the robin, 
Sang the robin, the Opechee, 
" Chibiabos ! Chibiabos ! 
He is dead, the sweetest singer ! '' 

And at night through all the forest 
Went the whippoorwill complaining, 
Wailing went the Wawonaissa, 
" Chibiabos ! Chibiabos ! 
He is dead, the sweet musician ! 
He the sweetest of all singers ! " 

Then the medicine-men, the Medas, 
The magicians, the Wabenos, 
And the Jossakeeds, the Prophets, 
Came to visit Hiawatha ; 
Built a Sacred Lodge beside him. 




154 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 





To appease him, to console him, 
Walked in silent, grave procession, 
Bearing each a pouch of healing. 
Skin of beaver, lynx, or otter. 
Filled with magic roots and simples. 
Filled with very potent medicines. 

When he heard their steps approaching, 
Hiawatha ceased lamenting, 
Called no more on Chibiabos ; 
Naught he questioned, naught he answered, 
But his mournful head uncovered. 
From his face the mourning colors 
Washed he slowly and in silence. 
Slowly and in silence followed 
Onward to the Sacred Wigwam. 

There a magic drink they gave him. 
Made of Nahma-wusk, the spearmint. 
And Wabeno-wusk, the yarrow. 
Roots of power, and herbs of healing ; 
Beat their drums, and shook their rattles ; 
Chanted singly and in chorus. 
Mystic songs like these, they chanted. 

" I myself, myself ! behold me ! 
'T is the great Gray Eagle talking ; 
Come, ye white crows, come and hear him ! 
The loud-speaking thunder helps me ; 
All the unseen spirits help me ; 



■ 



HIAWATHA'S LAMENTATION 



155 



I can hear their voices calling, 
All around the sky I hear them ! 
I can blow you strong, my brother, 
I can heal you, Hiawatha 1 " 

" Hi-au-ha ! " replied the chorus, 
" Way-ha-way ! " the mystic chorus. 

" Friends of mine are all the serpents ! 
Hear me shake my skin of hen-hawk ! 
Mahng, the white loon, I can kill him ; 
I can shoot your heart and kill it ! 
I can blow you strong, my brother, 
I can heal you, Hiawatha ! " 

" Hi-au-ha ! " replied the chorus, 
" Way-ha-way ! " the mystic chorus. 

" I myself, myself ! the prophet ! 
When I speak the wigwam trembles, 
Shakes the Sacred Lodge with terror, 
Hands unseen begin to shake it ! 
When I walk, the sky I tread on 
Bends and makes a noise beneath me ! 
I can blow you strong, my brother ! 
Rise and speak, Hiawatha ! " 

" Hi-au-ha ! " replied the chorus, 
" Way-ha-way ! " the mystic chorus. 

Then they shook their medicine-pouches 
O'er the head of Hiawatha, 
Danced their medicine-dance around him ; 





156 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

And upstarting wild and haggard, 
Like a man from dreams awakened, 
He was healed of all his madness. 
As the clouds are swept from heaven. 
Straightway from his brain departed 
All his moody melancholy ; 
As the ice is swept from rivers, 
Straightway from his heart departed 
All his sorrow and affliction. 

Then they summoned Chibiabos 
From his grave beneath the waters. 
From the sands of Gitche Gumee 
Summoned Hiawatha's brother. 
And so mighty was the magic 
Of that cry and invocation. 
That he heard it as he lay there 
Underneath the Big-Sea- Water ; 
From the sand he rose and listened. 
Heard the music and the singing, 
Came, obedient to the summons. 
To the doorway of the wigwam. 
But to enter they forbade him. 

Through a chink a coal they gave him, 
Through the door a burning fire-brand ; 
Ruler in the Land of Spirits, 
Ruler o'er the dead, they made him, 
Telling him a fire to kindle 



i 



HIAWATHA'S LAMENTATION I $7 

For all those that died thereafter, 
Camp-fires for their night encampments 
On their solitary journey 
To the kingdom of Ponemah, 
To the land of the Hereafter. 

From the village of his childhood. 
From the homes of those who knew him, 
Passing silent through the forest, 
Like a smoke-wreath wafted sideways. 
Slowly vanished Chibiabos ! 
Where he passed, the branches moved not 
Where he trod, the grasses bent not, 
And the fallen leaves of last year 
Made no sound beneath his footsteps. 

Four whole days he journeyed onward 
Down the pathway of the dead men ; 
On the dead-man's strawberry feasted. 
Crossed the melancholy river. 
On the swinging log he crossed it. 
Came unto the Lake of Silver, 
In the Stone Canoe was carried 
To the Islands of the Blessed, 
To the land of ghosts and shadows. 

On that journey, moving slowly. 
Many weary spirits saw he. 
Panting under heavy burdens. 
Laden with war-clubs, bows and arrows, 





158 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Kobes of fur, and pots and kettles. 
And with food that friends had given 
For that solitary journey. 

" Ay ! why do the living/' said they, 
" Lay such heavy burdens on us ! 
Better were it to go naked, 
Better were it to go fasting. 
Than to bear such heavy burdens 
On our long and weary journey ! " 

Forth then issued Hiawatha, 
Wandered eastward, wandered westward, 
Teaching men the use of simples 
And the antidotes for poisons, 
And the cure of all diseases. 
Thus was first made known to mortals 
All the mystery of Medamin, 
All the sacred art of healing. 




^^ 




XVI 

You shall hear how Pau-Puk-Keewis 
He, the handsome Yenadizze, 
Whom the people called the Storm-Fool, 
Vexed the village with disturbance ; 
You shall hear of all his mischief, 
And his flight from Hiawatha, 
And his wondrous transmigrations, 
And the end of his adventures. 

On the shores of Gitche Gumee, 
On the dunes of Nagow Wudjoo, 
By the shiuing Big-Sea- Water 
Stood the lodge of Pau-Puk-Keewis. 



i6o 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 



It was he who in his frenzy 
Whirled these drifting sands together, 
On the dunes of Nagow Wudjoo, 
When, among the guests assembled, 
He so merrily and madly 
Danced at Hiawatha's wedding, 

0^ Danced the Beggar's Dance to please them. 
Now, in search of new adventures. 
From his lodge went Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
Came with speed into the village. 
Found the young men all assembled 
In the lodge of old lagoo. 
Listening to his monstrous stories, 

^ To his wonderful adventures. 

A He was telling them the story 

y Of Ojeeg, the Summer-Maker, 
How he made a hole in heaven. 
How he climbed up into heaven, 
And let out the summer-weather. 
The perpetual, pleasant Summer ; 
How the Otter first essayed it ; 
How the Beaver, Lynx, and Badger 
Tried in turn the great achievement, 
From the summit of the mountain 
Smote their fists against the heavens. 
Smote against the sky their foreheads, 
Cracked the sky, but could not break it ; 



i 



PA U-PUK-KEE WIS 



l6l 



How the Wolverine, uprising-, 
Made him ready for the encounter, 
Bent his knees down, like a squirrel, 
Drew his arms back, like a cricket. 

" Once he leaped," said old lagoo, 
*' Once he leaped, and lo ! above him 
Bent the sky, as ice in rivers 
When the waters rise beneath it ; 
Twice he leaped, and lo ! above him 
Cracked the sky, as ice in rivers 
When the freshet is at highest ! 
Thrice he leaped, and lo ! above him 
Broke the shattered sky asunder. 
And he disappeared within it. 
And Ojeeg, the Fisher Weasel, 
With a bound went in behind liim ! " 

" Hark you ! " shouted Pau-Puk-Keewis 
As he entered at the doorway ; 
" I am tired of all this talking. 
Tired of old lagoo' s stories, 
Tired of Hiawatha's wisdom. 
Here is something to amuse you, 
Better than this endless talking." 

Then from out his pouch of wolf-skin 
Forth he drew, with solemn manner, 
All the game of Bowl and Counters, 
Pugasaing, with thirteen pieces. 







1 62 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

White on one side were they painted, 
And vermilion on the other ; 
Two Kenabeeks or great serpents, 
Two Ininewug or wedge-men, 
One great war-club, Pugamaugun, 
And one slender fish, the Keego, 
Four round pieces, Ozawabeeks, 
And three Sheshebwug or ducklings. 
All were made of bone and painted, 
All except the Ozawabeeks ; 
These were brass, on one side burnished, 
And were black upon the other. 

In a wooden bowl he placed them. 
Shook and jostled them together, 
Threw them on the ground before him. 
Thus exclaiming and explaining : 

" Red side up are all the pieces, 
And one great Kenabeek standing 
On the bright side of a brass piece, 
On a burnished Ozawabeek -, 
Thirteen tens and eight are counted.'^ 

Then again he shook the pieces, 
Shook and jostled them together, 
Threw them on the ground before him. 
Still exclaiming and explaining : 

" White are both the great Kenabeeks, 
White the Ininewug, the wedge-men, 



PA U'P UK-KEE WIS 



163 



Red are all the other pieces ; 

Five tens and an eight are counted." 

Thus he taught the game of hazard. 
Thus displayed it and explained it, 
Running through its various chances, 
Various changes, various meanings : 
Twenty curious eyes stared at him. 
Full of eagerness stared at him. 

" Many games," said old lagoo, 
Many games of skill and hazard 
Have I seen m different nations, 
Have I played in different countrieSo 
He who plays with old lagoo 
Must have very nimble fingers ; 
Though you think yourself so skilful 
I can beat you, Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
I can even give you lessons 
In your game of Bowl and Counters ! " 

So they sat and played together, 
All the old men and the young men. 
Played for dresses, weapons, wampum. 
Played till midnight, played till morning, 
Played until the Yenadizze, 
Till the cunning Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
Of their treasures had despoiled them, 
Of the best of all their dresses. 
Shirts of deer-skin, robes of ermine, 




164 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 



;':M 



l*c* 



mmm 



Belts of wampum, crests of feathers, 
Warlike weapons, pipes and pouches. 
Twenty eyes glared wildly at him, 
Like the eyes of wolves glared at him. 
Said the lucky Pau-Puk-Keewis : 

" In my wigwam I am lonely, 
In my wanderings and adventures 
I have need of a companion. 
Fain would have a Meshinauwa, 
An attendant and pipe-bearer. 
I will venture all these winnings, 
All these garments heaped about me. 
All this wampum, all these feathers. 
On a single throw will venture 
All against the young man yonder ! " 
'T was a youth of sixteen summers, 
'T was a nephew of lagoo ; 
Face-in-a-Mist, the people called him. 

As the fire burns in a pipe-head 
Dusky red beneath the ashes. 
So beneath his shaggy eyebrows 
Glowed the eyes of old lagoo. 

" Ugh ! " he answered very fiercely ; 

" Ugh ! " they answered all and each one. 
Seized the wooden bowl the old man. 
Closely in his bony fingers 
Clutched the fatal bowl, Onagon, 



PA U'P UK'KEE WIS 



165 



Shook it fiercely and with fury, 

Made the pieces ring together 

As he threw them down before him. 

Red were both the great Kenabeeks, 
Red the Ininewug, the wedge-men. 
Red the Sheshebwug, the duckhngs, 
Black the four brass Ozawabeeks, 
White alone the fish, the Keego ; 
Only five the pieces counted ! 

Then the smiling Pau-Puk-Keewis 
Shook the bowl and threw the pieces ; 
Lightly in the air he tossed them, 
And they fell about him scattered ; 
Dark and bright the Ozawabeeks, 
Red and white the other pieces. 
And upright among the others 
One Tninewug was standing, 
Even as crafty Pau-Puk-Keewis 
Stood alone among the players. 
Saying, " Five tens ! mine the game is ! " 

Twenty eyes glared at him fiercely, 
Like the eyes of wolves glared at him, 
As he turned and left the wigwam, 
Followed by his Meshinauwa, 
By the nephew of lagoo. 
By the tall and graceful stripling, 
Bearing in his arms the winnings. 





i66 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 





Shirts of deer-skin, robes of ermine, 
Belts of wampum, pipes and weapons. 

" Carry them," said Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
Pointing with his fan of feathers, 
" To my wigwam far to eastward. 
On the dunes of Nagow Wudjoo ! " 

Hot and red with smoke and gambhng 
Were the eyes of Pau-Puk-Keewis 
As he came forth to the freshness 
Of the pleasant Summer morning. 
All the birds were singing gayly. 
All the streamlets flowing swiftly. 
And the heart of Pau-Puk-Keewis 
Sang with pleasure as the birds sing, 
Beat with triumph like the streamlets. 
As he wandered through the village. 
In the early gray of morning. 
With his fan of turkey-feathers. 
With his plumes and tufts of swan's down. 
Till he reached the farthest wigwam. 
Reached the lodge of Hiawatha. 

Silent was it and deserted ; 
No one met him at the doorway. 
No one came to bid him welcome ; 
But the birds were singing round it. 
In and out and round the doorway, 
Hopping, singing, fluttering, feeding. 
And aloft upon the ridge-pole 



PA U-PUK-KEE WIS 



167 



Kahgahgee, the King of Ravens, 
Sat with fiery eyes, and, screaming, 
Flapped his wings at Pau-Puk-Keewis. 

" All are gone ! the lodge is empty ! " 
Thus it was spake Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
In his heart resolving mischief ; — 
" Gone is wary Hiawatha, 
Gone the silly Laughing Water, 
Gone Nokomis, the old woman, 
And the lodge is left unguarded ! " 

By the neck he seized the raven, 
Whirled it round him Hke a rattle, 
Like a medicine-pouch he shook it. 
Strangled Kahgahgee, the raven. 
From the ridge-pole of the wigwam 
Left its lifeless body hanging. 
As an insult to its master. 
As a taunt to Hiawatha. 

With a stealthy step he entered. 
Round the lodge in wild disorder 
Threw the household things about him. 
Piled together in confusion 
Bowls of wood and earthen kettles. 
Robes of buffalo and beaver. 
Skins of otter, lynx, and ermine. 
As an insult to Nokomis, 
As a taunt to Minnehaha. 

Then departed Pau-Puk-Keewis, 






1 68 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Whistling, singing through the forest, 
Whistling gayly to the squirrels, 
Who from hollow boughs above him 
Dropped their acorn-shells upon him, 
Singing gayly to the wood birds. 
Who from out the leafy darkness 
Answered with a song as merry. 

Then he climbed the rocky headlands. 
Looking o'er the Gitche Gumee, 
Perched himself upon their summit. 
Waiting full of mirth and mischief 
The return of Hiawatha. 

Stretched upon his back he lay there ; 
Far below him plashed the waters. 
Plashed and washed the dreamy waters ; 
Far above him swam the heavens. 
Swam the dizzy, dreamy heavens ; 
Round him hovered, fluttered, rustled, 
Hiawatha's mountain chickens. 
Flock-wise swept and wheeled about him, 
Almost brushed him with their pinions. 

And he killed them as he lay there. 
Slaughtered them by tens and twenties. 
Threw their bodies down the headland, 
Threw them on the beach below him. 
Till at length Kayoshk, the sea-gull, 
Perched upon a crag above them. 



PA U-PUK-KEE WIS 

Shouted : " It is Pau-Puk-Keewis ! 
He is slaying us by hundreds ! 
Send a message to our brother, 
Tidings send to Hiawatha ! " 



169 





XVII 



€|ie Jaunting of ^m^^nhMttii}i$ 



Full of wrath was Hiawatha 
When he came into the village, 
Found the people in confusion, 
Heard of all the misdemeanors. 
All the malice and the mischief, 
Of the cunning Pau-Puk-Keewis. 

Hard his breath came through his nostrils, 



THE HUNTING OF PAU-PUK-KEEWIS 171 



Through his teeth he buzzed and muttered 
Words of anger and resentment, 
Hot and humming, like a hornet. 

" I will slay this Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
Slay this mischief-maker ! " said he. 

*^ Not so long and wide the world is, 
Not so rude and rough the way is. 
That my wrath shall not attain him, 
That my vengeance shall not reach him ! " 

Then in swift pursuit departed 
Hiawatha and the hunters 
On the trail of Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
Through the forest, where he passed it, 
To the headlands where he rested ; 
But they found not Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
Only in the trampled grasses, 
In the whortleberry-bushes. 
Found the couch where he had rested, 
Found the impress of his body. 

From the lowlands far beneath them, 
From the Muskoday, the meadow, 
Pau-Puk-Keewis, turning backward. 
Made a gesture of defiance, 
Made a gesture of derision ; 
And aloud cried Hiawatha, 
From the summit of the mountains : 

" Not so long and wide the world is, 





1/2 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 




Not SO rude and rough the way is, 
But my wrath shall overtake you, 
And my vengeance shall attain you ! " 

Over rock and over river. 
Thorough bush, and brake, and forest, 
Ran the cunning Pau-Puk-Keewis ; 
Like an antelope he bounded. 
Till he came unto a streamlet 
In the middle of the forest, 
To a streamlet still and tranquil. 
That had overflowed its margin. 
To a dam made by the beavers. 
To a pond of quiet water. 
Where knee-deep the trees were standing, 
Where the water-liHes floated. 
Where the rushes waved and whispered. 

On the dam stood Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
On the dam of trunks and branches, 
Through whose chinks the water spouted, 
O'er whose summit flowed the streamlet. 
From the bottom rose the beaver. 
Looked with two great eyes of wonder, 
Eyes that seemed to ask a question, 
At the stranger, Pau-Puk-Keewis. 

On the dam stood Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
O'er his ankles flowed the streamlet, 
Flowed the bright and silvery water, 



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THE HUNTING OF PAU-PUK-KEEWIS 1 73 



And he spake unto the beaver. 
With a smile he spake in this wise : 

" my friend Ahmeek, the beaver. 
Cool and pleasant is the water ; 
Let me dive into the water, 
Let me rest there in your lodges ; 
Change me, too, into a beaver ! " 

Cautiously repHed the beaver, 
With reserve he thus made answer : 
" Let me first consult the others. 
Let me ask the other beavers." 
Down he sank into the water. 
Heavily sank he, as a stone sinks, 
Down among the leaves and branches. 
Brown and matted at the bottom. 

On the dam stood Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
O'er his ankles flowed the streamlet. 
Spouted through the chinks below him. 
Dashed upon the stones beneath him. 
Spread serene and calm before him. 
And the sunshine and the shadows 
Fell in flecks and gleams upon him, 
Fell in little shining patches. 
Through the waving, rustling branches. 

From the bottom rose the beavers, 
Silently above the surface 
Rose one head and then another, 







174 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Till the pond seemed full of beavers, 
Full of black and shining faces. 

To the beavers Pau-Puk-Keewis 
Spake entreating, said in this wise : 
Very pleasant is your dwelling, 
my friends ! and safe from danger ; 
Can you not with all your cunning, 
All your wisdom and contrivance, 
Change me, too, into a beaver ? " 

" Yes ! " rephed Ahmeek, the beaver, 
He the King of all the beavers, 
" Let yourself slide down among us, 
Down into the tranquil water." 

Down into the pond among them 
Silently sank Pau-Puk-Keewis ; 
Black became his shirt of deer-skin, 
Black his moccasins and leggings, 
In a broad black tail behind him 
Spread his fox-tails and his fringes ; 
He was changed into a beaver. 

" Make me large," said Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
Make me large and make me larger, 
Larger than the other beavers." 
" Yes," the beaver chief responded, 
•' When our lodge below you enter, 
In our wigwam we will make you 
Ten times larger than the others." 



THE HUNTING OF PAU-PUK-KEEWIS 1/5 

Thus into the clear, brown water 
Silently sank Pau-Puk-Keewis ; 
Found the bottom covered over 
With the trunks of trees and branches, 
Hoards of food against the winter. 
Piles and heaps against the famine ; 
Found the lodge with arching doorway, 
Leading into spacious chambers. 

Here they made him large and larger. 

Made him largest of the beavers. 

Ten times larger than the others. 

'' You shall be our ruler," said they ; 

" Chief and King of all the beavers." 

But not long had Pau-Puk-Keewis 
Sat in state among the beavers. 
When there came a voice of warning 
From the watchman at his station 
In the water-flags and Hlies, 
Saying, " Here is Hiawatha 1 
Hiawatha with his hunters ! " 

Then they heard a cry above them, 
Heard a shouting and a tramping. 
Heard a crashing and a rushing. 
And the water round and o'er them 
Sank and sucked away in eddies. 
And they knew their dam was broken. 

On the lodge's roof the hunters 






J6 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Leaped, and broke it all asunder ; 
Streamed the sunshine through the crevice, 
Sprang the beavers through the doorway, 
Hid themselves in deeper water, 
In the channel of the streamlet ; 
But the mighty Pau-Puk-Keewis 
Could not pass beneath the doorway ; 
He was puffed with pride and feeding, 
He was swollen like a bladder. 

Through the roof looked Hiawatha, 
Cried aloud, " Pau-Puk-Keewis ! 
Vain are all your craft and cunning. 
Vain your manifold disguises ! 
Well I know you, Pau-Puk-Keewis ! " 
With their clubs they beat and bruised him. 
Beat to death poor Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
Pounded him as maize is pounded, 
Till his skull was crushed to pieces. 

Six tall hunters, lithe and Umber, 
Bore him home on poles and branches. 
Bore the body of the beaver ; 
But the ghost, the Jeebi in him. 
Thought and felt as Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
Still lived on as Pau-Puk-Keewis. 

And it fluttered, strove, and struggled, 
Waving hither, waving thither, 
As the curtains of a wigwam 
Struggle with their thongs of deer-skin^ 



THE HUNTING OF PAU-PUK-KEEWIS 1 77 



When the wintry wind is blowing 5 
Till it drew itself together, 
Till it rose up from the body, 
Till it took the form and features 
Of the cunning Pau-Puk-Keewis 
Vanishing into the forest. 

But the wary Hiawatha 
Saw the figure ere it vanished, 
Saw the form of Pau-Puk-Keewis 
Glide into the soft blue shadow 
Of the pine-trees of the forest ; 
Toward the squares of white beyond it, 
Toward an opening in the forest, 
Like a wind it rushed and panted, 
Bending all the boughs before it. 
And behind it, as the rain comes, 
Came the steps of Hiawatha. 

To a lake with many islands 
Came the breathless Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
Where among the water-lilies 
Pishnekuh, the brant, were sailing ; 
Through the tufts of rushes floating, 
Steering through the reedy islands. 
Now their broad black beaks they lifted. 
Now they plunged beneath the water, 
Now they darkened iu the shadow. 
Now they brightened in the sunshine. 

" Pishnekuh ! " cried Pau-Puk-Keewis, 





178 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

" Pishnekuh ! my brothers ! " said he, 

" Change me to a brant with plumage. 

With a shining neck and feathers, 

Make me large, and make me larger. 

Ten times larger than the others." 

Straightway to a brant they changed him. 
With two huge and dusky pinions. 
With a bosom smooth and rounded, 
With a bill like two great paddles. 
Made him larger than the others, 
Ten times larger than the largest. 
Just as, shouting from the forest. 
On the shore stood Hiawatha. 

Up they rose with cry and clamor, 
With a whir and beat of pinions. 
Rose up from the reedy islands, 
From the water-flags and Hlies. 
And they said to Pau-Puk-Keewis : 
" In your flying, look not downward, 
Take good heed, and look not downward. 
Lest some strange mischance should happen, 
Lest some great mishap befall you ! " 

Fast and far they fled to northward, 
Fast and far through mist and sunshine, 
Fed among the moors and fen-lands, 
Slept among the reeds and rushes. 

On the morrow as they journeyed, 



THE HUNTING OF PAU-PUK-KEEWIS 1 79 



Buoyed and lifted by the South-wind, 

Wafted onward by the South-wind, 

Blowing fresh and strong behind them. 

Rose a sound of human voices, 

Rose a clamor from beneath them. 

From the lodges of a village. 

From the people miles beneath them. 

For the people of the village 
Saw the flock of brant with wonder, 
Saw the wings of Pau-Puk-Keewis 
Flapping far up in the ether. 
Broader than two doorway curtains. 

Pau-Puk-Keewis heard the shouting, 
Knew the voice of Hiawatha, 
Knew the outcry of lagoo. 
And forgetful of the warning. 
Drew his neck in, and looked downward, 
And the wind that blew behind him 
Caught his mighty fan of feathers. 
Sent him wheeling, whirling downward ! 

All in vain did Pau-Puk-Keewis 
Struggle to regain his balance ! 
Whirling round and round and downward 
He beheld in turn the village 
And in turn the flock above him. 
Saw the village coming nearer. 
And the flock receding farther. 






l8o THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Heard the voices growing louder, 
Heard the shouting and the laughter ; 
Saw no more the flock above him, 
Only saw the earth beneath him ; 
Dead out of the empty heaven. 
Dead among the shouting people, 
With a heavy sound and sullen. 
Fell the brant with broken pinions. 

But his soul, his ghost, his shadow. 
Still survived as Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
Took again the form and features 
Of the handsome Yenadizze, 
And again went rushing onward. 
Followed fast by Hiawatha, 
Crying : " Not so wide the world is. 
Not so long and rough the way is, 
But my wrath shall overtake you, 
But my vengeance shall attain you ! " 

And so near he came, so near him, 
That his hand was stretched to seize him. 
His right hand to seize and hold him. 
When the cunning Pau-Puk-Keewis 
Whirled and spun about in circles, 
Fanned the air into a whirlwind, 
Danced the dust and leaves about him, 
And amid the whirling eddies 
Sprang into a hollow oak-tree, 



L 



THE HUNTING OF PAU-PUK-KEEWIS i8l 

Changed himself into a serpent, 
Gliding out through root and rubbish. 

With his right hand Hiawatha 
Smote amain the hollow oak-tree, 
Rent it into shreds and splinters, 
Left it lying there in fragments. 
But in vain ; for Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
Once again in human figure, 
Full in sight ran on before him, 
Sped away in gust and whirlwind. 
On the shores of Gitche Gumee, 
Westward by the Big-Sea- Water, 
Came unto the rocky headlands. 
To the Pictured Eocks of sandstone, 
Looking over lake and landscape. 

And the Old Man of the Mountain, 
He the Manito of Mountains, 
Opened wide his rocky doorways. 
Opened wide his deep abysses. 
Giving Pau-Puk-Keewis shelter 
In his caverns dark and dreary. 
Bidding Pau-Puk-Keewis welcome 
To his gloomy lodge of sandstone. 

There without stood Hiawatha, 
Found the doorways closed against him. 
With his mittens, Minjekahwun, 
Smote great caverns in the sandstone, 




l82 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 





Cried aloud in tones of thunder, 
" Open ! I am Hiawatha ! " 
But the Old Man of the Mountain 
Opened not, and made no answer 
From the silent crags of sandstone, 
From the gloomy rock abysses. 

Then he raised his hands to heaven. 
Called imploring on the tempest, 
Called Waywassimo, the lightning. 
And the thunder, Annemeekee ; 
And they came with night and darkness, 
Sweeping down the Big-Sea- Water 
From the distant Thunder Mountains ; 
And the trembling Pau-Puk-Keewis 
Heard the footsteps of the thunder. 
Saw the red eyes of the lightning. 
Was afraid, and crouched and trembled. 

Then Waywassimo, the lightning. 
Smote the doorways of the caverns, 
With his war-club smote the doorways. 
Smote the jutting crags of sandstone, 
And the thunder, Annemeekee, 
Shouted down into the caverns. 
Saying, " Where is Pau-Puk-Keewis ! " 
And the crags fell, and beneath them 
Dead among the rocky ruins 
Lay the cunning Pau-Puk-Keewis, 



THE HUNTING OF PAU-PUK-KEEWIS 1 83 

Lay the handsome Yenadizze, 
Slain in his own human figure. 

Ended were his wild adventures, 
Ended were his tricks and gambols, 
Ended all his craft and cunning, 
Ended all his mischief -making. 
All his gambling and his dancing, 
All his wooing of the maidens. 

Then the noble Hiawatha 
Took his soul, his ghost, his shadow, 
Spake and said : " Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
Never more in human figure 
Shall you search for new adventures ; 
Never more with jest and laughter 
Dance the dust and leaves in whirlwinds ; 
But above there in the heavens 
You shall soar and sail in circles ; 
I will change you to an eagle. 
To Keneu, the great war-eagle, 
Chief of all the fowls with feathers. 
Chief of Hiawatha's chickens." 

And the name of Pau-Puk-Keewis 
Lingers still among the people. 
Lingers still among the singers, 
And among the story-tellers ; 
And in Winter, when the snow-flakes 
Whirl in eddies round the lodges. 




1 84 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 



When the wind in gusty tumult 
O'er the smoke-flue pipes and whistles, 
" There," they cry, " comes Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
He is dancing through the village, 
He is gathering in his harvest ! " 





XVIII 



€|)e SDeattj of fetDa^sriiib 

Far and wide among the nations 
Spread the name and fame of Kwasind 
No man dared to strive with Kwasind, 
No man could compete with Kwasind. 
But the mischievous Puk-Wudjies, 
They the envious Little People, 
They the fairies and the pygmies, 
Plotted and conspired against him. 




1 86 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

" If this hateful Kwasind/' said they, 
" If this great, outrageous feUow 
Goes on thus a little longer, 
Tearing everything he touches, 
Rending everything to pieces. 
Filling all the world with wonder, 
What becomes of the Puk-Wudjies ? 
Who will care for the Puk-Wudjies ? 
He will tread us down Kke mushrooms. 
Drive us all into the water. 
Give our bodies to be eaten 
By the wicked Nee-ba-naw-baigs, 
By the Spirits of the water ! " 
So the angry Little People 
All conspired against the Strong Man, 
All conspired to murder Kwasind, 
Yes, to rid the world of Kwasind, 
The audacious, overbearing. 
Heartless, haughty, dangerous Kwasind ! 

Now this wondrous strength of Kwasind 
In his crown alone was seated ; 
In his crown too was his weakness ; 
There alone could he be wounded. 
Nowhere else could weapon pierce him, 
Nowhere else could weapon harm him. 

Even there the only weapon 
That could wound him, that could slay him. 



THE DEATH OF KWASIND 1 8/ 

Was the seed-cone of the pme-tree, 
Was the bhie cone of the fir-tree. 
This was Kwasind's fatal secret, 
Known to no man among mortals ; 
But the cunning Little People, 
The Puk-Wudjies, knew the secret, 
Knew the only way to kill him. 

So they gathered cones together. 
Gathered seed-cones of the pine-tree, 
Gathered blue cones of the fir-tree, 
In the woods by Taquamenaw, 
Brought them to the river's margin. 
Heaped them in great piles together. 
Where the red rocks from the margin 
Jutting overhang the river. 
There they lay in wait for Kwasind, 
The malicious Little People. 

'T was an afternoon in Summer ; 
Very hot and still the air was, 
Very smooth the ghding river. 
Motionless the sleeping shadows : 
Insects glistened in the sunshine. 
Insects skated on the water, 
Filled the drowsy air with buzzing. 
With a far resounding war-cry. 

Down the river came the Strong Man, 
In his birch canoe came Kwasind, 





i88 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 








Floating slowly down the current 
Of the sluggish Taquamenaw, 
Very languid with the weather, 
Very sleepy with the silence. 

From the overhanging branches. 
From the tassels of the birch-trees, 
Soft the Spirit of Sleep descended ; 
By his airy hosts surrounded, 
His invisible attendants, 
Came the Spirit of Sleep, Nepahwin ; 
Like the burnished Dush-kwo-ne-she, 
Like a dragon-fly, he hovered 
O'er the drowsy head of Kwasind. 

To his ear there came a murmur 
As of waves upon a sea-shore. 
As of far-off tumbling waters. 
As of winds among the pine-trees ; 
And he felt upon his forehead 
Blows of little airy war-clubs. 
Wielded by the slumbrous legions 
Of the Spirit of Sleep, Nepahwin, 
As of some one breathing on him. 

At the first blow of their war-clubs. 
Fell a drowsiness on Kwasind ; 
At the second blow they smote him. 
Motionless his paddle rested ; 
At the third, before his vision 



THE DEATH OF KWASIND 



189 



Reeled the landscape into darkness. 
Very sound asleep was Kwasind. 

So he floated down the river. 
Like a blind man seated upright, 
Floated down the Taquamenaw, 
Underneath the trembling birch-trees, 
Underneath the wooded headlands. 
Underneath the war encampment 
Of the pygmies, the Puk-Wudjies. 

There they stood, all armed and waitin 
Hurled the pine-cones down upon him, 
Struck him on his brawny shoulders. 
On his crown defenceless struck him. 
" Death to Kwasind ! " was the sudden 
War-cry of the Little People. 

And he sideways swayed and tumbled, 
Sideways fell into the river. 
Plunged beneath the sluggish water 
Headlong, as an otter plunges ; 
And the birch canoe, abandoned. 
Drifted empty down the river, 
Bottom upward swerved and drifted : 
Nothing more was seen of Kwasind. 

But the memory of the Strong Man 
Lingered long among the people, 
And whenever through the forest 
Raged and roared the wintry tempest, 





IQO THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

And the branches, tossed and troubled. 
Creaked and groaned and split asunder, 
" Kwasind 1 " cried they ; " that is Kwasind ! 
He is gathering in his fire-wood ! " 





0.^ 



XIX 



€l)e <©I)o^t^ 



Never stoops the soaring vulture 

On his quarry in the desert, 

On the sick or wounded bison. 

But another vulture, watching 

From his high aerial look-out, 

Sees the downward plunge, and follows ; 

And a third pursues the second, 

Coming from the invisible ether, 





92 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

First a speck, and then a vulture. 
Till the air is dark with pinions. 

So disasters come not singly ; 
But as if they watched and waited, 
Scanning one another's motions, 
When the first descends, the others 
Follow, follow, gathering flock-wise 
Round their victim, sick and wounded. 
First a shadow, then a sorrow. 
Till the air is dark with anguish. 

Now, o'er all the dreary North-land, 
Mighty Peboan, the Winter, 
Breathing on the lakes and rivers, 
Into stone had changed their waters. 
From his hair he shook the snow-flakes, 
Till the plains were strewn with whiteness, 
One uninterrupted level. 
As if, stooping, the Creator 
With his hand had smoothed them over. 

Through the forest, wide and wailing. 
Roamed the hunter on his snow-shoes ; 
In the viUage worked the women, 
Pounded maize, or dressed the deer-skin ; 
And the young men play^ together 
On the ice the noisy ball-play. 
On the plain the dance of snow-shoes. 

One dark evening, after sundown, 



THE GHOSTS 1 93 

In her wigwam Laughing Water 
Sat with old Nokomis^ waiting 
For the steps of Hiawatha 
Homeward from the hunt returning. 

On their faces gleamed the fire-Hght, 
Painting them with streaks of crimson, 
In the eyes of old Nokomis 
Glimmered like the watery moonlight, 
In the eyes of Laughing Water 
Glistened like the sun in water ; 
And behind them crouched their shadows 
In the corners of the wigwam. 
And the smoke in wreaths above them 
Climbed and crowded through the smoke-flue. 

Then the curtain of the doorway / 

From without was slowly lifted ; ) ( 

Brighter glowed the fire a moment, 
And a moment swerved the smoke-wreath, 
As two women entered softly. 
Passed the doorway uninvited, 
Without word of salutation. 
Without sign of recognition. 
Sat down in the farthest corner. 
Crouching low among the shadows. 

From their aspect and their garments. 
Strangers seemed they in the village ; 
Very pale and haggard were they, 





194 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

As they sat there sad and silent, 
TrembHng, cowering with the shadows. 

Was it the wind above the smoke-flue, 
Muttering down into the wigwam ? 
Was it the owl, the Koko-koho, 
Hooting from the dismal forest ? 
Sure a voice said in the silence : 
These are corpses clad in garments, 
These are ghosts that come to haunt you. 
From the kingdom of Ponemah, 
From the land of the Hereafter ! " 

Homeward now came Hiawatha 
From his hunting in the forest, 
With the snow upon his tresses. 
And the red deer on his shoulders. 
At the feet of Laughing Water 
Down he threw his lifeless burden ; 
Nobler, handsomer she thought him. 
Than when first he came to woo her. 
First threw down the deer before her, 
As a token of his wishes. 
As a promise of the future. 

Then he turned and saw the strangers. 
Cowering, crouching with the shadows ; 
Said within himself, " Who are they ? 
What strange guests has Minnehaha ? " 
But he questioned not the strangers. 



THE GHOSTS 



95 



Only spake to bid them welcome 
To his lodge, his food, his fireside. 

When the evening meal was ready, 
And the deer had been divided. 
Both the pallid guests, the strangers, 
Springing from among the shadows, 
Seized upon the choicest portions, 
Seized the white fat of the roebuck, 
Set apart for Laughing Water, 
For the wife of Hiawatha ; 
Without asking, without thanking. 
Eagerly devoured the morsels, 
FHtted back among the shadows 
In the corner of the wigwam. 

Not a word spake Hiawatha, 
Not a motion made Nokomis, 
Not a gesture Laughing Water ; 
Not a change came o'er their features ; 
Only Minnehaha softly 
Whispered, saying, " They are famished ; 
Let them do what best delights them ; 
Let them eat, for they are famished." 

Many a daylight dawned and darkened, 
Many a night shook off the daylight 
As the pine shakes off the snow-flakes 
From the midnight of its branches ; 
Day by day the guests unmoving 





196 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Sat there silent in the wigwam ; 
But by night, in storm or starhght, 
Forth they went into the forest, 
Bringing fire-wood to the wigwam, 
Bringing pine-cones for the burning, 
Always sad and always silent. 

And whenever Hiawatha 
Came from fishing or from hunting, 
When the evening meal was ready. 
And the food had been divided. 
Gliding from their darksome corner. 
Came the pallid guests, the strangers. 
Seized upon the choicest portions 
Set aside for Laughing Water, 
And without rebuke or question 
Flitted back among the shadows. 

Never once had Hiawatha 
By a word or look reproved them ; 
Never once had old Nokomis 
Made a gesture of impatience ; 
Never once had Laughing Water 
Shown resentment at the outrage. 
All had they endured in silence, 
That the rights of guest and stranger. 
That the virtue of free-giving, 
By a look might not be lessened. 
By a word might not be broken. 

Once at midnight Hiawatha, 



THE GHOSTS 



197 



Ever wakeful, ever watchful, 

In the wigwam, dimly lighted 

By the brands that still were burning, 

By the glimmering, flickering fire-light, 

Heard a sighing, oft repeated, 

Heard a sobbing, as of sorrow. 

From his couch rose Hiawatha, 
From his shaggy hides of bison. 
Pushed aside the deer-skin curtain. 
Saw the pallid guests, the shadows. 
Sitting upright on their couches. 
Weeping in the silent midnight. 

And he said : " guests ! why is it 
That your hearts are so afflicted. 
That you sob so in the midnight ? 
Has perchance the old Nokomis, 
Has my wife, my Minnehaha, 
Wronged or grieved you by unkindness. 
Failed in hospitable duties ? " 

Then the shadows ceased from weeping. 
Ceased from sobbing and lamenting, 
And they said, with gentle voices : 
" We are ghosts of the departed. 
Souls of those who once were with you. 
From the realms of Chibiabos 
Hither have we come to try you, 
Hither have we come to warn you. 

" Cries of grief and lamentation 







198 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Reach us in the Blessed Islands ; 
Cries of anguish from the living, 
Calling back their friends departed. 
Sadden us with useless sorrow. 
Therefore have we come to try you ; 
No one knows us, no one heeds us. 
We are but a burden to you, 
And we see that the departed 
Have no place among the Hving. 

" Think of this, Hiawatha ! 
Speak of it to all the people. 
That henceforward and forever 
They no more with lamentations 
Sadden the souls of the departed 
In the Islands of the Blessed. 

" Do not lay such heavy burdens 
In the graves of those you bury, 
Not such weight of furs and wampum, 
Not such weight of pots and kettles, 
For the spirits faint beneath them. 
Only give them food to carry, 
Only give them fire to light them. 

" Four days is the spirit's journey 
To the land of ghosts and shadows. 
Four its lonely night encampments ; 
Four times must their fires be lighted. 
Therefore, when the dead are buried. 



THE GHOSTS 



199 



Let a fire, as night approaches, 
Four times on the grave be kindled, 
That the soul upon its journey 
May not lack the cheerful fire-light, 
May not grope about in darkness. 

'' Farewell, noble Hiawatha ! 
We have put you to the trial. 
To the proof have put your patience, 
By the insult of our presence. 
By the outrage of our actions. 
We have found you great and noble. 
Fail not in the greater trial, 
Faint not in the harder struggle." 

When they ceased, a sudden darkness 
Fell and filled the silent wigwam. 
Hiawatha heard a rustle 
As of garments trailing by him. 
Heard the curtain of the doorway 
Lifted by a hand he saw not, 
Felt the cold breath of the night air. 
For a moment saw the star-light ; 
But he saw the ghosts no longer. 
Saw no more the wandering spirits 
From the kingdom of Ponemah, 
From the land of the Hereafter. 





XX 



€lje f amtne 




Oh the long and dreary Winter ! 
Oh the cold and cruel Winter ! 
Ever thicker, thicker, thicker 
Froze the ice on lake and river, 
Ever deeper, deeper, deeper 
Fell the snow o'er all the landscape, 
Fell the covering snow, and drifted 
Through the forest, round the village. 

Hardly from his buried wigwam 
Could the hunter force a passage ; 
With his mittens and his snow-shoes 
Vainly walked he through the forest, 



THE FAMINE 20I 

Sought for bird or beast and found none, 

Saw no track of deer or rabbit, 

In the snow beheld no footprints, 

In the ghastly, gleaming forest 

Fell, and could not rise from weakness. 

Perished there from cold and hunger. 

Oh the famine and the fever ! 
Oh the wasting of the famine ! 
Oh the blasting of the fever ! 
Oh the wailing of the children ! 
Oh the anguish of the women ! 

All the earth was sick and famished ; 
Hungry was the air around them. 
Hungry was the sky above them, 
And the hungry stars in heaven 
Like the eyes of wolves glared at them ! 

Into Hiawatha's wigwam 
Came two other guests, as silent 
As the ghosts were, and as gloomy. 
Waited not to be invited. 
Did not parley at the doorway, 
Sat there without word of welcome 
In the seat of Laughing Water ; 
Looked with haggard eyes and hollow 
At the face of Laughing Water. 

And the foremost said : '' Behold me ! 
I am Famine, Bukadawin ! " 





202 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 



h 



-V' 



And the other said ; " Behold me ! 
I am Fever, Ahkosewin ! " 

And the lovely Minnehaha 
Shuddered as they looked upon her, 
Shuddered at the words they uttered, 
Lay down on her bed in silence, 
Hid her face, but made no answer ; 
Lay there trembling, freezing, burning 
At the looks they cast upon her. 
At the fearful words they uttered. 

Forth into the empty forest 
Rushed the maddened Hiawatha ; 
In his heart was deadly sorrow^, 
In his face a stony firmness ; 
On his brow the sweat of anguish 
Started, but it froze and fell not. 

Wrapped in furs and armed for hunting. 
With his mighty bow of ash-tree. 
With his quiver full of arrows. 
With his mittens, Minjekahwun, 
Into the vast and vacant forest 
On his snow-shoes strode he forward. 

" Gitche Manito, the Mighty ! " 
Cried he with his face uplifted 
In that bitter hour of anguish, 
" Give your children food, father ! 
Give us food, or we must perish ! 



THE FAMINE 



203 



Give me food for Minnehaha, 
Eor my dying Minnehaha 1 " 

Through the far-resounding forest, 
Through the forest vast and vacant 
Rang that cry of desolation. 
But there came no other answer 
Than the echo of his crying, 
Than the echo of the woodlands, 
^' Minnehaha ! Minnehaha ! " 

All day long roved Hiawatha 
In that melancholy forest. 
Through the shadow of whose thickets 
In the pleasant days of Summer, 
Of that ne'er forgotten Summer, 
He had brought his young wife homeward 
From the land of the Dacotahs ; 
When the birds sang in the thickets, 
And the streamlets laughed and glistened, 
And the air was full of fragrance, 
And the lovely Laughing Water 
Said with voice that did not tremble, 
•' I will follow you, my husband ! " 

In the wigwam with Nokomis, 
With those gloomy guests, that watched her, 
With the Famine and the Fever, 
She was lying, the Beloved, 
She the dying Minnehaha. 






204 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

'^ Hark ! " she said ; " I hear a rushing, 
Hear a roaring and a rushing, 
Hear the Falls of Minnehaha 
Calling to me from a distance ! " 
" No, my child ! " said old Nokomis, 
" 'T is the night-wind in the pine-trees 1 " 

" Look ! " she said ; " I see my father 
Standing lonely at his doorway. 
Beckoning to me from his wigwam 
In the land of the Dacotahs ! " 
" No, my child ! " said old Nokomis, 
" 'T is the smoke, that waves and beckons ! " 

" Ah ! " said she, " the eyes of Pauguk 
Glare upon me in the darkness, 
I can feel his icy fingers 
Clasping mine amid the darkness ! 
Hiawatha ! Hiawatha ! " 

And the desolate Hiawatha, 
Far away amid the forest. 
Miles away among the mountains. 
Heard that sudden cry of anguish. 
Heard the voice of Minnehaha 
Calhng to him in the darkness, 
" Hiawatha ! Hiawatha ! " 

Over snow-fields waste and pathless, 
Under snow-encumbered branches. 
Homeward hurried Hiawatha, 



THE FAMINE 205 

Empty-handed, heavy-hearted, 
Heard Nokomis moaning, wailing : 
" Wahonowin ! Wahonowin ! 
Would that I had perished for you, 
Would that I were dead as you are ! 
Wahonowin ! Wahonowin ! " 

And he rushed into the wigwam, 
Saw the old Nokomis slowly 
Rocking to and fro and moaning. 
Saw his lovely Minnehaha 
Lying dead and cold before him. 
And his bursting heart within him 
Uttered such a cry of anguish. 
That the forest moaned and shuddered, 
That the very stars in heaven 
Shook and trembled with his anguish. 

Then he sat down, still and speechless, 
On the bed of Minnehaha, J 

At the feet of Laughing Water, S^ 

At those willing feet, that never jml 

More would lightly run to meet him, Bfll| 
Never more would lightly follow. 9 

With both hands his face he covered, 
Seven long days and nights he sat there. 
As if in a swoon he sat there. 
Speechless, motionless, unconscious 
Of the daylight or the darkness. 






206 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Then they buried Minnehaha ; 
In the snow a grave they made her,, 
In the forest deep and darksome, 
Underneath the moaning hemlocks ; 
Clothed her in her richest garments, 
Wrapped her in her robes of ermine. 
Covered her with snow, like ermine ; 
Thus they buried Minnehaha. 

And at night a fire was lighted. 
On her grave four times was kindled. 
For her soul upon its journey 
To the Islands of the Blessed. 
From his doorway Hiawatha 
Saw it burning in the forest, 
Lighting up the gloomy hemlocks ; 
From his sleepless bed uprising, 
From the bed of Minnehaha, 
Stood and watched it at the doorway. 
That it might not be extinguished. 
Might not leave her in the darkness. 

" Farewell ! " said he, ^^ Minnehaha ! 
Farewell, my Laughing Water ! 
All my heart is buried with you, 
All my thoughts go onward with you ! 
Come not back again to labor, 
Come not back again to suffer. 
Where the Famine and the Fever 



THE FAMINE 

Wear the heart and waste the body. 
Soon my task will be completed, 
Soon your footsteps I shall follow 
To the Islands of the Blessed, 
To the Kingdom of Ponemah, 
To the land of the Hereafter ! " 



207 





XXI 



€l)e I©fjite:^a9an'^ foot 



In his lodge beside a river, 
Close beside a frozen river. 
Sat an old man, sad and lonely. 
White his hair was as a snow-drift ; 
Dull and low his fire was burning, 
And the old man shook and trembled, 
Folded in his Waubewyon, 
In his tattered white-skin-wrapper. 
Hearing nothing but the tempest 
As it roared along the forest. 
Seeing nothing but the snow-storm, 
As it whirled and hissed and drifted. 

All the coals were white with ashes. 
And the fire was slowly dying. 
As a young man, walking Hghtly, 



THE WHITE-MAN'S FOOT 



209 



At the open doorway entered. 
Red with blood of youth his cheeks were, 
Soft his eyes, as stars in Spring-time, 
Bound his forehead was with grasses ; 
Bound and plumed with scented grasses, 
On his lips a smile of beauty, 
FilHng all the lodge with sunshine, 
In his hand a bunch of blossoms 
Filling all the lodge with sweetness. 

" Ah, my son ! " exclaimed the old man, 

" Happy are my eyes to see you. 
Sit here on the mat beside me, 
Sit here by the dying embers. 
Let us pass the night together. 
Tell me of your strange adventures. 
Of the lands where you have travelled ; 
I will tell you of my prowess. 
Of my many deeds of wonder." 

From his pouch he drew his peace-pipe. 
Very old and strangely fashioned ; 
Made of red stone was the pipe-head, 
And the stem a reed with feathers ; 
Filled the pipe with bark of willow, 
Placed a burning coal upon it. 
Gave it to his guest, the stranger. 
And began to speak in this wise : 

" When I blow my breath about me, 




2IO 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 





When I breathe upon the landscape, 
Motionless are all the rivers. 
Hard as stone becomes the water ! " 
And the young man answered, smiling 

" When I blow my breath about me, 
When I breathe upon the landscape. 
Flowers spring up o'er all the meadows. 
Singing, onward rush the rivers ! " 

" When I shake my hoary tresses," 
Said the old man darkly frowning, 

" All the land with snow is covered ; 
All the leaves from all the branches 
Fall and fade and die and wither. 
For I breathe, and lo ! they are not. 
From the waters and the marshes 
Rise the wild goose and the heron, 
Fly away to distant regions. 
For I speak, and lo ! they are not. 
And where'er my footsteps wander. 
All the wild beasts of the forest 
Hide themselves in holes and caverns. 
And the earth becomes as flintstone ! " 

" When I shake my flowing ringlets," 
Said the young man, softly laughing, 

" Showers of rain fall warm and welcome, 
Plants lift up their heads rejoicing. 
Back into their lakes and marshes 



THE WHITE-MAN'S FOOT 



211 



Come the A\dld goose and the heron, 
Homeward shoots the arrowy swallow, 
Sino' the bluebii'd and the robin, 
And where'er my footsteps wander, 
All the meadows wave with blossoms. 
All the woodlands ring with music. 
All the trees are dark with foHage ! " 

While they spake, the night departed : 
From the distant realms of Wabun, 
From his shining lodge of silver, 
Like a warrior robed and pamted, 
Came the sun, and said, " Behold me ! 
Gheezis, the great sun, behold me ! " 

Then the old man's tongue was speechless 
And the air grew warm and pleasant. 
And upon the wigwam sweetly 
Sang the bluebird and the robin. 
And the sti^eam began to murmur. 
And a scent of o-rowinof o-rasses 
Through the lodge was gently wafted. 

And Segwun, the youthful stranger, 
More distinctly in the dayhght 
Saw the icy face before him ; 
It was Peboan, the Winter ! 

From his eyes the tears were flowing, 
As from melting lakes the sti*eamlets, 
And his body shrunk and dwindled 






212 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

As the shouting sun ascended, 
Till into the air it faded, 
Till into the ground it vanished, 
And the young man saw before him. 
On the hearth-stone of the wigwam. 
Where the fire had smoked and smouldered, 
Saw the earhest flower of Spring-time, 
Saw the Beauty of the Spring-time, 
Saw the Miskodeed in blossom. 

Thus it was that in the North-land 
After that unheard-of coldness. 
That intolerable Winter, 
Came the Spring with all its splendor. 
All its birds and all its blossoms. 
All its flowers and leaves and grasses. 

Sailing on the wind to northward. 
Flying in great flocks, hke arrows, 
Like huge arrows shot through heaven, 
Passed the swan, the Mahnahbezee, 
Speaking almost as a man speaks ; 
And in long lines waving, bending 
Like a bow-string snapped asunder. 
Came the white goose, Waw-be-wawa ; 
And in pairs, or singly flying, 
Mahng the loon, with clangorous pinions, 
The blue heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, 
And the grouse, the Mushkodasa. 



THE WHITE-MAN'S FOOT 213 

In the thickets and the meadows 
Piped the bluebird, the Owaissa, 
On the summit of the lodges 
Sang the robin, the Opechee, 
In the covert of the pine-trees 
Cooed the pigeon, the Omemee, 
And the sorrowing Hiawatha, 
Speechless in his infinite sorrow, 
Heard their voices calling to him. 
Went forth from his gloomy doorway, 
Stood and gazed into the heaven. 
Gazed upon the earth and waters. 

From his wanderings far to eastward, 
From the regions of the morning. 
From the shining land of Wabun, 
Homeward now returned lagoo. 
The great traveller, the great boaster, 
Full of new and strange adventures, 
Marvels many and many wonders. 

And the people of the village 
Listened to him as he told them 
Of his marvellous adventures. 
Laughing answered him in this wise : 
" Ugh ! it is indeed lagoo ! 
No one else beholds such wonders ! " 

He had seen, he said, a water 
Bigger than the Big-Sea-Water, 







214 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Broader than the Gitehe Gumee, 
Bitter so that none could drink it ! 
At each other looked the warriors, 
Looked the women at each other, 
Smiled, and said, " It cannot be so ! 
Kaw ! " they said, " it cannot be so ! " 

O'er it, said he, o'er this water 
Came a great canoe with pinions, 
A canoe with wings came flying, 
Bigger than a grove of pine-trees, 
Taller than the tallest tree-tops ! 
And the old men and the women 
Looked and tittered at each other ; 
" Kaw ! " they said, " we don't believe it ! " 

From its mouth, he said, to greet him. 
Came Waywassimo, the lightning. 

Came the thunder, Annemeekee ! J 

And the warriors and the women 
Laughed aloud at poor lagoo ; 
" Kaw ! " they said, '' what tales you tell us ! " 

In it, said he, came a people. 
In the great canoe with pinions 
Came, he said, a hundred warriors ; 
Painted white were all their faces 
And with hair their chins were covered ! 
And the warriors and the women 
Laughed and shouted in derision. 



THE WHITE-MAN'S FOOT 



215 



Like the ravens on the tree-tops, 
Like the crows upon the hemlocks. 

" Kaw ! " they said, " what lies you tell us ! 
Do not think that we believe them ! " 

Only Hiawatha laughed not, 
But he gravely spake and answered 
To their jeering and their jesting : 

" True is all lagoo tells us ; 
I have seen it in a vision, 
Seen the great canoe with pinions, 
Seen the people with white faces. 
Seen the coming of this bearded 
People of the wooden vessel 
From the regions of the morning, 
From the shining land of Wabun. 

" Gitche Manito, the Mighty, 
The Great Spirit, the Creator, 
Sends them hither on his errand. 
Sends them to us with his message. 
Wheresoe'er they move, before them 
Swarms the stinging fly, the Ahmo, 
Swarms the bee, the honey-maker ; 
Wheresoe'er they tread, beneath them 
Springs a flower unknown among us. 
Springs the White-man's Foot in blossom 
" Let us welcome, then, the strangers. 
Hail them as our friends and brothers. 






2l6 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

And the heart's right hand of friendship 
Give them when they come to see us. 
Gitche Manito, the Mighty, 
Said this to me in my vision. 

" I beheld, too, in that vision 
All the secrets of the future, 
Of the distant days that shall be. 
I beheld the westward marches 
Of the unknown, crowded nations. 
All the land was full of people, 
Restless, struggling, toiling, striving. 
Speaking many tongues, yet f eehng 
But one heart-beat in their bosoms. 
In the woodlands rang their axes. 
Smoked their towns in all the valleys. 
Over all the lakes and rivers 
Rushed their great canoes of thunder. 

" Then a darker, drearier vision 
Passed before me, vague and cloud-like ; 
I beheld our nation scattered. 
All forgetful of my counsels. 
Weakened, warring with each other : 
Saw the remnants of our people 
Sweeping westward, wild and wof ul. 
Like the cloud-rack of a tempest. 
Like the withered leaves of Autumn ! " 




XXII 



patoatfta'i^ 2Dejpattute 



By the shore of Gitche Gumee, 
By the shining Big-Sea-Water, 
At the doorway of his wigwam, 
In the pleasant Summer morning, 
Hiawatha stood and waited. 
All the air was fuU of freshness. 
All the earth was bright and joyous. 
And before him, through the sunshine. 
Westward toward the neighboring forest 
Passed in golden swarms the Ahmo, 




2l8 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Passed the bees, the honey-makers, 
Burning, singing in the sunshine. 

Bright above him shone the heavens, 
Level spread the lake before him ; 
From its bosom leaped the sturgeon. 
Sparkling, flashing in the sunshine ; 
On its margin the great forest 
Stood reflected in the water. 
Every tree-top had its shadow, 
Motionless beneath the water. 

From the brow of Hiawatha 
Gone was every trace of sorrow. 
As the fog from off the water, 
As the mist from off the meadow. 
With a smile of joy and triumph. 
With a look of exultation. 
As of one who in a vision 
Sees what is to be, but is not. 
Stood and waited Hiawatha. 

Toward the sun his hands were lifted, 
Both the palms spread out against it, 
And between the parted fingers 
Fell the sunshine on his features. 
Flecked with light his naked shoulders, 
As it falls and flecks an oak-tree 
Through the rifted leaves and branches. 

O'er the water floating, flying. 



HIAWATHA'S DEPARTURE 219 

Something in the hazy distance, 
Something in the mists of morning, 
Loomed and lifted from the water, 
Now seemed floating, now seemed flying, 
Coming nearer, nearer, nearer. 

Was it Shingebis the diver ? 
Or the pelican, the Shada ? 
Or the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah ? 
Or the white goose, Waw-be-wawa, 
With the water dripping, flashing. 
From its glossy neck and feathers ? 

It was neither goose nor diver, 
Neither pelican nor heron, 
O'er the water floating, flying, 
Through the shining mist of morning. 
But a birch canoe with paddles, 
Rising, sinking on the water. 
Dripping, flashing in the sunshine ; 
And within it came a people 
From the distant land of Wabun, 
From the farthest realms of morning 
Came the Black-Robe chief, the Prophet, 
He the Priest of Prayer, the Pale-face, 
With his guides and his companions. 

And the noble Hiawatha, 
With his hands aloft extended. 
Held aloft in sign of welcome, 







220 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Waited, full of exultation, 

Till the birch canoe with paddles 

Grated on the shining pebbles, 

Stranded on the sandy margin, 

Till the Black-Robe chief, the Pale-face, 

With the cross upon his bosom. 

Landed on the sandy margin. 

Then the joyous Hiawatha 
Cried aloud and spake in this wise : 
" Beautiful is the sun, strangers. 
When you come so far to see us ! 
All our town in peace awaits you. 
All our doors stand open for you : 
You shall enter all our wigwams. 
For the heart's right hand we give you. 

" Never bloomed the earth so gayly, 
Never shone the sun so brightly. 
As to-day they shine and blossom 
When you come so far to see us ! 
Never was our lake so tranquil. 
Nor so free from rocks and sand-bars ; 
For your birch canoe in passing 
Has removed both rock and sand-bar. 

" Never before had our tobacco 
Such a sweet and pleasant flavor. 
Never the broad leaves of our cornfields 
Were so beautiful to look on. 



Came the Black- Robe chiefs , . . the Pale-face^ 
With his guides afid his companions 



1 



HIAWATHA'S DEPARTURE 



221 



As they seem to us this morning, 
When you come so far to see us ! " 

And the Black-Robe chief made answer. 
Stammered in his speech a little, 
Speaking words yet unfamiliar : 
" Peace be with you, Hiawatha, 
Peace be with you and your people. 
Peace of prayer, and peace of pardon, 
Peace of Christ, and joy of Mary ! " 

Then the generous Hiawatha 
Led the strangers to his wigwam. 
Seated them on skins of bison, 
Seated them on skins of ermine, 
And the careful old Nokomis 
Brought them food in bowls of basswood. 
Water brought in birchen dippers, 
And the calumet, the peace-pipe. 
Filled and lighted for their smoking. 

All the old men of the village. 
All the warriors of the nation. 
All the Jossakeeds, the Prophets, 
The magicians, the Wabenos, 
And the medicine-men, the Medas, 
Came to bid the strangers welcome ; 
" It is well," they said, " brothers. 
That you come so far to see us ! " 

In a circle round the doorway. 








222 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 




With their pipes they sat in silence. 
Waiting to behold the strangers, 
Waiting to receive their message ; 
Till the Black-Robe chief, the Pale-face, 
From the wigwam came to greet them. 
Stammering in his speech a little. 
Speaking words yet unfamiliar ; 

" It is well," they said, " brother. 
That you come so far to see us ! " 

Then the Black-Eobe chief, the Prophet, 
Told his message to the people. 
Told the purport of his mission, 
Told them of the Virgin Mary, 
And her blessed Son, the Saviour, 
How in distant lands and ages 
He had lived on earth as we do ; 
How he fasted, prayed, and labored ; 
How the Jews, the tribe accursed. 
Mocked him, scourged him, crucified him ; 
How he rose from where they laid him, 
Walked again with his disciples. 
And ascended into heaven. 

And the chiefs made answer, saying : 

" We have listened to your message. 
We have heard your words of wisdom 
We will think on what you tell us. 
It is well for us, brothers. 
That you come so far to see us ! " 



HIAWATHA'S DEPARTURE 223 

Then they rose up aud departed 
Each one homeward to his wigwam, 
To the young men and the women 
Told the story of the strangers 
Whom the Master of Life had sent them 
From the shining land of Wabun. 

Heavy with the heat and silence 
Grew the afternoon of Summer ; 
With a drowsy sound the forest 
Whispered round the sultry wigwam, 
With a sound of sleep the water 
Rippled on the beach below it ; 
From the cornfields shrill and ceaseless 
Sang the grasshopper, Pah-puk-keena ; 
And the guests of Hiawatha, 
Weary with the heat of Summer, 
Slumbered in the sultry wigwam. 

Slowly o'er the simmering landscape 
Fell the evening's dusk and coolness, 
And the long and level sunbeams 
Shot their spears into the forest, 
Breaking through its shields of shadow. 
Rushed into each secret ambush. 
Searched each thicket, dingle, hollow ; 
Still the guests of Hiawatha 
Slumbered in the silent wigwam. 

From his place rose Hiawatha, 
Bade farewell to old Nokomis, 







224 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Spake in whispers, spake in this wise, 
Did not wake the guests, that slumbered : 

" I am going, Nokomis, 
On a long and distant journey, 
To the portals of the Sunset, 
To the regions of the home-wind. 
Of the Northwest- Wind, Keewaydin. 
But these guests I leave behind me. 
In your watch and ward I leave them ; 
See that never harm comes near them. 
See that never fear molests them, 
Never danger nor suspicion. 
Never want of food or shelter. 
In the lodge of Hiawatha ! " 

Forth into the village went he, 
Bade farewell to all the warriors. 
Bade farewell to all the young men. 
Spake persuading, spake in this wise : 

" I am going, my people. 
On a long and distant journey ; 
Many moons and many winters 
Will have come, and will have vanished. 
Ere I come again to see you. 
But my guests I leave behind me ; 
Listen to their words of wisdom. 
Listen to the truth they tell you, 
For the Master of Life has sent them 
From the land of light and morning ! " 



HIAWATHA'S DEPARTURE 225 

On the shore stood Hiawatha, 
Turned and waved his hand at parting ; 
On the clear and himinous water 
Launched his birch canoe for saiHng, 
From the pebbles of the margin 
Shoved it forth into the water ; 
Whispered to it, " Westward ! westward ! ' 
And with speed it darted forward. 

And the evening sun descending 
Set the clouds on fire with redness, 
Burned the broad sky, like a prairie, 
Left upon the level water 
One long track and trail of splendor, 
Down whose stream, as down a river. 
Westward, westward Hiawatha 
Sailed into the fiery sunset. 
Sailed into the purple vapors. 
Sailed into the dusk of evening. 

And the people from the margin 
Watched him floating, rising, sinking. 
Till the birch canoe seemed lifted 
High into that sea of splendor. 
Till it sank into the vapors 
Like the new moon slowly, slowly 
Sinking in the purple distance. 

And they said, " Farewell forever ! " 
Said, " Farewell, Hiawatha ! " 
And the forests, dark and lonely. 




226 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 



Moved through all their depths of darkness, 
Sighed, " Farewell, Hiawatha ! " 
And the waves upon the margin 
Rising, rippling on the pebbles. 
Sobbed, "FareweU, Hiawatha ! " 
And the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, 
From her haunts among the fen-lands, 
Screamed, " Farewell, Hiawatha ! " 

Thus departed Hiawatha, 
Hiawatha the Beloved, 
In the glory of the sunset. 
In the purple mists of evening. 
To the regions of the home-wind. 
Of the Northwest- Wind, Keewaydin, 
To the Islands of the Blessed, 
To the kingdom of Ponemah, 
To the land of the Hereafter ! 





(aocabulart anD 0ott^ 





Oocaftiiiatp anti |>otcj5 



This Indian Edda — if I may so call it — is founded 
on a tradition, prevalent among the North American 
Indians, of a personage of miraculous birth, who was 
sent among them to clear their rivers, forests, and fish- 
ing-grounds, and to teach them the arts of peace. He 
was known among different tribes by the several names 
of Michabou, Chiabo, Manabozo, Tarenya-wagon, and 
Hiawatha. Mr. Schoolcraft gives an account of him in 
his Algic Resem'ches, vol. i. p. 134 ; and in his History, 
Condition^ and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the 
United States, Part III. p. 314, may be found the Iro- 
quois form of the tradition, derived from the verbal 
narrations of an Onondaga chief. 



230 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 



Into this old tradition I have woven other curious 
Indian legends, drawn chiefly from the various and val- 
uable writings of Mr. Schoolcraft, to whom the literary 
world is greatly indebted for his indefatigable zeal in 
rescuing from oblivion so much of the legendary lore of 
the Indians. 

The scene of the poem is among the Ojibways on the 
southern shore of Lake Superior, in the region between 
the Pictured Rocks and the Grand Sable. 




VOCABULARY. 

Adjidau'mo. the red squirrel. 

Ahdeek', the reindeer. 

Ahkose'win, fever. 

Ahmeek', the heaver. 

Algon'quin, Ojihway. 

Annemee^kee, the thunder. 

Apuk'wa, a bulrush. 

Baim-wa'wa, the sound of the thunder. 

Bemah'gut, the grapevine. 

Be'na, the pheasant. 

Big-Sea- Water, Lake Superior. 

Bizkada'wm, famine. 

Cheemaun', a birch canoe. 

Chetowaik', the plover. 

Chibia'bos, a musician ; friend of Hiawatha ; ruler in the Land 

of Spirits. 
Dahin'da, the bullfrog. 

Dush-kwo-ne'ske, or Kwo-ne'she, the dragon-fly. 
Esa, shame upon you. 
Ewa-yea', lullaby. 
Ghee'zis, the sun. 

Gitehe Gu'raee, the Big-Sea-Water, Lake Superior. 
Gitehe Man'ito, the Great Spirit, the Master of Life. 
Gushkewau', the darkness. 
Hiawa'tha, the Wise Man, the Teacher ; son of Mudjekeewis, the 

West- Wind, and Wenonah, daughter of Nokomis. 
Ia'g"oo, a great boaster and story-teller. 
Inin'ewug-, men, or pawns in the Game of the Bowl. 
Ishkoodah', fre ; a comet. 
Jee'bi, a ghost, a spirit. 
Joss'akeed, aprophet. 



NOTES 



231 



Kabibonok'ka, the North- Wind. 

Kiigh, the hedgehog. 

Ka'go, do not. 

Kahgaligee', the raven. 

Kaw, no. 

Kaween', wo indeed. 

Kayoslik', the sea-gidl. 

Kee'go, ajish. 

Keeway'diu, the Northwest-Wind, the Home- Wind. 

Kena'beek, a serpent. 

Keneii', the great war-eagle. 

Keno'zha, the pickerel. 

Ko'ko-ko'ho, the owl. 

Kxmtasoo", the Game of Plum-stones. 

Kwa'siud, the Strong Man. 

Kwo-ne'she, or Dush-kwo-ne'she, the dragon-Jly- 

Mahnahbe'zee, the swan. 

Mtxling, the loon. 

Mahn-go-tay'see, loon-hearted brave. 

Maliuomo'iiee, ivild rice. 

Ma' ma, the ivoodpecker. 

Maskeno'zlia, the pike. 

Me'da, a medicine-man. 

Meeiuxh'g-a, the Uueherry. 

jNIegissog'wou, the great Pearl-Feather, a magician and the Manito 

of Wealth. 
Meshinau'wa, a pipe-bearer. 
Minjekah'wun, Hiawatha's mittens. 
Miimelia'ha, Laughing Water; a waterfall on a stream running 

into the Mississippi, between Fort Snelling and the Falls of St. 

Anthony. 
Minueha'ha, Laughing Water ; wife of Hiawatha. 
Miiine-wa'wa, a pleasant sound, as of the wind in the trees. 
Mishe-Mo'kwa, the Great Bear. 
Mislie-Nali'ma, the Great Sturgeon. 
Miskodeed', the Spring Beauty, the Claytonia Virginica. 
Moiida'min, Indian Corn. 
Moon of Bright Nights, April. 
Moou of Leaves, May. 
Moon of Strawberries, June. 
Moon of the Falling Leaves, September. 
Moon of Snow-Shoes, November. 
Miidjekee'wis, the West-Wind ; father of Hiawatha. 
Miidway-ansh'ka, sound of waves on a shore. 
Mushkoda'sa, the grouse. 






232 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

Na'gow Wud'joo, the Sand Dunes of Lake Superior. 

Nah'ma, the sturgeon. 

Nah'ma-wusk, spearmint. 

Nee-ba-naw'baigs, water spirits. 

Nenemoo'sha, sweetheart. 

Nepah'win, sleep. 

Noko'mis, a grandmother ; mother of Wenonah. 

No'sa, my father. 

Nush'ka, look ! look ! 

Odah'min, the strawberry. 

Okahah'wis, the fresh-water herring. 

Ome'mee, the pigeon. 

Ona'gon, a howl. 

Onaway', awake. 

Ope'chee, the robin. 

Osse'o, Son of the Evening Star. 

Owais'sa, the bluebird. 

Oweenee', wife of Osseo- 

Ozawa'beek, a round piece of brass or copper in the Game of the 

Bowl. 
Pah-puk-kee'na, the grasshopper. 
Pau'guk, death. 

Pau-Piik-Kee'wis, the handsome Yenadizze, the Storm-Fool. 
Pauwa'ting, Sault Sainte Marie. 
Pe'boan, Winter. 

Pem^iean, meat of the deer or buffalo dried and pounded. 
Pezheekee', the bison. 
Pisbnekuh', the brant. 
Pone'mah, hereafter. 
Pugasaing', Game of the Bowl. 
Puggawau'gun, a war-club. 

Puk-Wudj'ies, little wild men of the woods; pygmies. 
Sah-sah-je'wtm, rapids. 
Sah'wa, the perch. 
SegwTin', Spring. 
Sha'da, the pelican. 
Shahbo'mm, the gooseberry. 
Shah-shah, long ago. 
Shaugoda'ya, a coward. 
Shawgashee', the craw-fish. 
Shawonda'see, the South- Wind. 
Shaw-shaw, the swallow. 

Shesh'ebwug, ducks ; pieces in the Game of the Bowl. 
Shin'gebis, the diver or grebe. 
Showain'' neme'shin, pity me. 



NOTES 



'2'IZ 



ShuL-sliuh'gah, the blue heron. 

Soan-g-e-ta'ha, strong hearted. 

Subbeka'she, the spider. 

Sugge'ma, the mosquito. 

To tern, family coat of arms. 

Ugli, yes. 

Ug-udwash', the sun-fish. 

Unktahee', the God of Water. 

Wabas'so, the rabbit ; the North. 

Wabe'uo, a magician, a juggler. 

Wabe'no-wusk, yarrow. 

Wa-buu, the East-Wind. 

Wa'bun Aii'mmg-, the Star of the East, the Morning Star. 

Wahono'win, a cry of lamentation. 

Wah-wah-tay'see, the f re-fly. 

Wam'pum, beads of shell. 

Waubewy'on, a white skin un-apper. 

Wa'wa, the wild goose. 

Waw'beek, a rock. 

Waw-be-wa'wa, the white goose. 

Wawonais'sa, the whippoorunll. 

Way-muk-kwa'na, the caterpillar. 

Wen'digoes, giants. 

Weno'nah, Hiawatha's mother, daughter of Nokomis. 

Yenadiz'ze, an idler and gambler ; an Indian dandy. 





[** Suddenly and immensely popular in this country, 
greatly admired by many foreign critics, imitated with 
perfect ease by any clever school-boy, serving as a model 
for metrical advertisements, made fun of, sneered at, 
abused, admired, but, at any rate, a picture full of 
pleasing fancies and melodious cadences. The very 
names are jewels which the most fastidious muse might 
be proud to wear. Coming from the realm of the An- 
droscoggin and of Moosetukmaguntuk, how could he 
have found two such dehcious names as Hiawatha and 
Minnehaha ? The eight-syllable trochaic verse of Hia- 
ivatha, hke the eight-syllable iambic verse of The Lady 
of the Lake, and others of Scott's poems, has a fatal 
facility, which I have elsewhere endeavored to explain 
on physiological principles. The recital of each line 





234 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

uses up the air of one natural expiration, so that we 
read, as we naturally do, eighteen or twenty lines in a 
minute, without disturbing the normal rhythm of breath- 
ing, which is also eighteen or twenty breaths to the min- 
ute. The standing objection to this is, that it makes 
the octo-syllabic verse too easy writing and too slipshod 
reading. Yet in this most frequently criticised compo- 
sition the poet has shown a subtle sense of the require- 
ments of his simple story of a primitive race, in choos- 
ing the most fluid of measures, that lets the thought run 
through it in easy sing-song, such as oral tradition 
would be sure to find on the lips of the story-tellers of 
the wigwam." — Oliver Wendell Holmes : Remarks at 
meeting of Massachusetts Historical Society, April 13, 
1882.] 

Page 3. In the Vale of Tawasentha. 

This valley, now called Norman's Kill, is in Albany 
County, New York. 

Page 6. On the Mountains of the Prairie, 

Mr. Catlin, in his Letters and Notes on the Manners, 
Customs, and Condition of the North American In- 
dians, vol. ii. p. 160, gives an interesting account of the 
Coteau des Frairies, and the Red Pipestone Quarry. 
He says : — 

" Here (according to their traditions) happened the 
mysterious birth of the red pipe, which has blown its 
fumes of peace and war to the remotest corners of the 
continent ; which has visited every warrior, and passed 
through its reddened stem the irrevocable oath of war 
and desolation. And here, also, the peace-breathing 
calumet was born, and fringed with the eagle's quills, 
which has shed its thrilling fumes over the land, and 
soothed the fury of the relentless savage. 

" The Great Spirit at an ancient period here called 
the Indian nations together, and, standing on the preci- 
pice of the red pipe-stone rock, broke from its wall a 
piece, and made a huge pipe by turning it in his hand, 



NOTES 235 

which he smoked over them, and to the North, the South, 
the East, and the West, and told them that this stone 
was red, — that it was their flesh, — that they must use 
it for their pipes of peace, — that it belonged to them 
all, and that the war-club and scalping-knife must not 
be raised on its ground. At the last whiff of liis pipe 
his head went into a great cloud, and the whole surface 
of the rock for several miles was melted and glazed ; 
two great ovens were opened beneath, and two women 
(guardian spirits of the place) entered them in a blaze 
of fire ; and they are heard there yet (Tso-mec-cos-tee 
and Tso-me-cos-te-won-dee), answering to the invoca- 
tions of the high-priests or medicine-men, who consult 
them when they are visitors to this sacred place." 

Page 15. Hark you, Bear ! you are a coward. 

This anecdote is from Heckewelder. In his account 
of the Indian Nations, he describes an Indian hunter as 
addressing a bear in nearly these words. *' I was pres- 
ent," he says, " at the delivery of this curious invective ; 
when the hunter had despatched the bear, I asked him 
how he thought that poor animal could understand what 
he said to it. * Oh,' said he in answer, * the bear under- 
stood me very well ; did you not observe how ashamed he 
looked while I was upbraiding him ? ' " — Transactions 
of the American Philosophical Society, vol. i. p. 240. 

Page 28. Hush / the Naked Bear will hear thee ! 

Heckewelder, in a letter published in the Transac- 
tions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. iv. p. 
260, speaks of this tradition as prevalent among the 
Mohicans and Delawares. 

" Their reports," he says, " run thus : that among all 
animals that had been formerly in this country, this was 
the most ferocious ; that it was much larger than the 
largest of the common bears, and remarkably long- 
bodied ; all over (except a spot of hair on its back of a 
white color) naked. . . . 

" The history of this animal used to be a subject of 





236 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 

conversation among the Indians, especially when in the 
woods a hunting. I have also heard them say to their 
children when crying : ' Hush ! the naked bear will hear 
you, be upon you, and devour you.' " 

Page 45. Where the Falls of Minnehaha, etc. 

" The scenery about Fort Snelling is rich in beauty. 
The Falls of St. Anthony are familiar to travelers, and 
to readers of Indian sketches. Between the fort and 
these falls are the ' Little Falls,' forty feet in height, on 
a stream that empties into the Mississippi. The In- 
dians called them Minehah-hah, or ' laughing waters.' " 
— Mrs. Eastman's Dacotah, or Legends of the Sioux, 
Introd. p. ii. 

Page 111. Sand Hills of the Nagow Wudjoo, 

A description of the Grand Sable, or great sand- 
dunes of Lake Superior, is given in Foster and Whitney's 
Report on the Geology of the Lake Superior Land Dis- 
trict, Part II. p. 131. 

" The Grand Sable possesses a scenic interest little 
inferior to that of the Pictured Rocks. The explorer 
passes abruptly from a coast of consolidated sand to one 
of loose materials; and although in the one case the 
cliffs are less precipitous, yet in the other they attain a 
higher altitude. He sees before him a long reach of 
coast, resembling a vast sand-bank, more than three 
hundred and fifty feet in height, without a trace of 
vegetation. Ascending to the top, rounded hillocks of 
blown sand are observed, with occasional clumps of 
trees, standing out like oases in the desert." 

Page 112. Onaway ! Awake, beloved ! 

The original of this song may be found it LittelVs 
Living Age, vol. xxv. p. 45. 

Page 117. Or the Red Swan floating, flying. 

The fanciful tradition of the Red Swan may be found 
in Schoolcraft's Algic Researches, vol. ii. p. 9. Three 
brothers were hunting on a wager to see who would 
bring home the first game. 



NOTES 



237 



" They were to shoot no other animal," so the legend 
says, " but such as each was in the habit of killing. 
They set out different ways ; Odjibwa, the youngest, 
had not gone far before he saw a bear, an animal he 
was not to kill, by the agreement. He followed him 
close, and drove an arrow through him, which brought 
him to the ground. Although contrary to the bet, he 
immediately commenced skinning him, when suddenly 
something red tinged all the air around him. He 
rubbed his eyes, thinking he was perhaps deceived ; but 
without effect, for the red hue continued. At length he 
heard a strange noise at a distance. It first appeared 
like a human voice, but after following the sound for 
some distance, he reached the shores of a lake, and soon 
saw the object he was looking for. At a distance out 
in the lake sat a most beautiful Red Swan, whose plu- 
mage glittered in the sun, and who would now and then 
make the same noise he had heard. He was within 
long bow-shot, and, pulling the arrow from the bow- 
string up to his ear, took deliberate aim and shot. The 
arrow took no effect ; and he shot and shot again till 
his quiver was empty. Still the swan remained, mov- 
ing round and round, stretching its long neck and dip- 
ping its bill into the water, as if heedless of the arrows 
shot at it. Odjibwa ran home and got all his own and 
his brothers' arrows, and shot them all away. He then 
stood and gazed at the beautiful bird. While standing, 
he remembered his brothers' saying that in their de- 
ceased father's medicine-sack were three magic arrows. 
Off he started, his anxiety to kill the swan overcoming 
all scruples. At any other time he would have deemed 
it sacrilege to open his father's medicine-sack ; but now 
he hastily seized the three arrows and ran back, leaving 
the other contents of the sack scattered over the lodge. 
The swan was still there. He shot the first arrow with 
great precision, and came very near to it. The second 
came still closer ; as he took the last arrow, he felt his 




238 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 





arm firmer, and, drawing it up with vigor, saw it pass 
through the neck of the swan a little above the breast. 
Still it did not prevent the bird from flying off, which 
it did, however, at first slowly, flapping its wings and 
rising gradually into the air, and then flying off toward 
the sinking of the sun." — Pages 10-12. 

Page 130. When I think of my beloved. 

The original of this song may be found in Oneota, 
p. 15. 

Page 132. Sing the mysteries of Mondamin. 

The Indians hold the maize, or Indian corn, in great 
veneration. " They esteem it so important and divine 
a grain," says Schoolcraft, " that their story-tellers in- 
vented various tales, in which this idea is symbolized 
under the form of a special gift from the Great Spirit. 
The Odjibwa-Algonquins, who call it Mon-da-min, that 
is, this Spirit's grain or berry, have a pretty story of the 
kind, in which the stalk in full tassel is represented as 
descending from the sky, under the guise of a handsome 
youth, in answer to the prayers of a young man at his 
fast of virility, or coming to manhood. 

" It is well known that corn-planting and corn-gather- 
ing, at least among all the still uncolonized tribes, are 
left entirely to the females and children, and a few 
superannuated old men. It is not generally known, 
perhaps, that this labor is not compulsory, and that it is 
assumed by the females as a just equivalent, in their 
view, for the onerous and continuous labor of the other 
sex, in providing meats, and skins for clothing, by the 
chase, and in defending their villages against their ene- 
mies, and keeping intruders off their territories. A 
good Indian housewife deems this a part of her pre- 
rogative, and prides herself to have a store of corn to 
exercise her hospitality, or duly honor her husband's 
hospitality in the entertainment of the lodge guests." — 
Oneota, p. 82. 

Page 134. Thus the fields shall be more fruitful. 



NOTES 239 

" A singular proof of this belief, in both sexes, of the 
mysterious influence of the steps of a woman on the 
vegetable and insect creation, is found in an ancient cus- 
tom, which was related to me, respecting corn-planting. 
It was the practice of the hunter's wife, when the field 
of corn had been planted, to choose the first dark or 
overclouded evening to perform a secret circuit, sans 
hahillement, around the field. For this purpose she 
slipped out of the lodge in the evening, unobserved, to 
some obscure nook, where she completely disrobed. 
Then, taking her matchecota, or principal garment, in 
one hand, she dragged it around the field. This was 
thought to insure a prolific crop, and to prevent the as- 
saults of insects and worms upon the grain. It was sup- 
posed they could not creep over the charmed line." — 
Oneota, p. 83. 

Page 138. With his prisoner-string he hound him. 

" These cords," says Mr. Tanner, " are made of the 
bark of the elm-tree, by boiling and then immersing it 
in cold water. . . . The leader of a war party com- 
monly carries several fastened about his waist, and if, 
in the course of the fight, any one of his young men 
takes a prisoner, it is his duty to bring him immediately 
to the chief, to be tied, and the latter is responsible for 
his safe-keeping." — Narrative of Captivity and Ad- 
ventures, p. 412. 

Page 141. 

Wagemin, the thief of cornfields, 
Paimosaid, who steals the maize-ear. 

" If one of the young female buskers finds a red ear 
of corn, it is typical of a brave admirer, and is regarded 
as a fitting present to some young warrior. But if the 
ear be crooked, and tapering to a point, no matter what 
color, the whole circle is set in a roar, and wa-ge-min is 
the word shouted aloud. It is the symbol of a thief in 
the cornfield. It is considered as the image of an old 
man stooping as he enters the lot. Had the chisel of 





240 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 





Praxiteles been employed to produce this image, it could 
not more vividly bring to the minds of the merry group 
the idea of a pilferer of their favorite mondamin. . . . 

"The literal meaning of the term is, a mass, or 
crooked ear of grain ; but the ear of corn so called is a 
conventional type of a little old man pilfering ears of corn 
in a cornfield. It is in this manner that a single word 
or term, in these curious languages, becomes the fruitful 
parent of many ideas. And we can thus perceive why 
it is that the word wagemin is alone competent to excite 
merriment in the husking circle. 

" This term is taken as a basis of the cereal chorus, 
or corn song, as sung by the Northern Algonquin tribes. 
It is coupled with the phrase Paimosaid, — a permuta- 
tive form of the Indian substantive, made from the verb 
pim-O'Sa, to walk. Its literal meaning is, he who walks, 
or the walker ;■ but the ideas conveyed by it are, he who 
walks by night to pilfer corn. It offers, therefore, a 
kind of paralleism in expression to the preceding term." 
— Oneota, p. 254. 

Page 161. Pagasaing, with thirteen pieces. 

This Game of the Bowl is the principal game of haz- 
ard among the Northern tribes of Indians. Mr. School- 
craft gives a particular account of it in Oneota, p. 85. 
" This game," he says, " is very fascinating to some 
portions of the Indians. They stake at it their orna- 
ments, weapons, clothing, canoes, horses, everything in 
fact they possess ; and have been known, it is said, to 
set up their wives and children, and even to forfeit theii 
own liberty. Of such desperate stakes I have seen no 
examples, nor do I think the game itself in common 
use. It is rather confined to certain persons, who hold 
the relative rank of gamblers in Indian society, — men 
who are not noted as hunters or warriors, or steady 
providers for their families. Among these are persons 
who bear the term of lenadizze-wug, that is, wanderers 
about the country, braggadocios, or fops. It can hardly 



NOTES 241 

be classed with the popular games of amusement, by 
which skill and dexterity are acquired. I have gen- 
erally found the chiefs and graver men of the tribes, 
who encouraged the young men to play ball, and are 
sure to be present at the customary sports, to witness, 
and sanction, and applaud them, speak lightly and dis- 
paragingly of this game of hazard. Yet it cannot be 
denied that some of the chiefs, distinguished in war and 
the chase, at the West, can be referred to as lending 
their example to its fascinating power." 

See also his History^ Conditions, and Prospects of 
the Indian Tribes, Part 11. p. 72. 

Page 181. To the Pictured Bocks of sandstone. 

The reader will find a long description of the Pictured 
Rocks in Foster and Whitney's Report on the Geology of 
the Lake Superior Land District, Part II. p. 124. 
From this I make the following extract : — 

" The Pictured Rocks may be described, in general 
terms, as a series of sandstone bluffs extending along 
the shore of Lake Superior for about five miles, and 
rising, in most places, vertically from the water, without 
any beach at the base, to a height varying from fifty to 
nearly two hundred feet. Were they simply a line of 
cliffs, they might not, so far as relates to height or ex- 
tent, be worthy of a rank among great natural curiosi- 
ties, although such an assemblage of rocky strata, washed 
by the waves of the great lake, would not, under any 
circumstances, be destitute of grandeur. To the voyager, 
coasting along their base in his frail canoe, they would, 
at all times, be an object of dread ; the recoil of the 
surf, the rock-bound coast, affording for miles no place 
of refuge, — the lowering sky, the rising wind, — all 
these would excite his apprehension, and induce him to 
ply a vigorous oar until the dreaded wall was passed. 
But in the Pictured Rocks there are two features which 
communicate to the scenery a wonderful and almost 
unique character. These are, first, the curious manner 




242 



THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 




in which the cliffs have been excavated and worn away 
by the action of the lake, which, for centuries, has dashed 
an ocean-like surf against their base ; and, second, the 
equally curious manner in which large portions of the 
surface have been colored by bands of brilliant hues. 

" It is from the latter circumstance that the name, 
by which these cliffs are known to the American trav- 
eller, is derived ; while that applied to them by the 
French voyageurs Q Les Portails ') is derived from the 
former, and by far the most striking peculiarity. 

" The term Pictured Rocks has been in use for a 
great length of time ; but when it was first applied, we 
have been unable to discover. It would seem that the 
first travellers were more impressed with the novel and 
striking distribution of colors on the surface than with 
the astonishing variety of form into which the cliffs 
themselves have been worn. ... 

" Our voyageurs had many legends to relate of the 
pranks of the Menni-bojou in these caverns, and, in an- 
swer to our inquiries, seemed disposed to fabricate 
stories, without end, of the achievements of this Indian 
deity." 

Page 218. Totvard the sun his hands were lifted. 

In this manner, and with such salutations, was Father 
Marquette received by the Illinois. See his Voyages et 
Decouvertes^ Section V. 







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